Abstract

INTRODUCTION: There is growing concern regarding the attrition of surgeon-scientists. To understand the decline of basic science research (BSR), it is essential to examine trends in research conducted by trainees. We hypothesized that, over recent decades, cardiothoracic (CT) surgery trainees have published fewer BSR articles.MATERIALS AND METHODS: CT surgeons at United States training institutions in 2020 who completed training in the past threedecades, excluding international trainees, were analyzed (1991-2000: n=148; 2001-2010: n=228; 2011-2020: n=247). Publication records were obtained from Scopus. Articles with medical subject heading terms involving molecular/cellular or animal research were classified as BSR using the National Institutes of Health iCite Translation module. Data were analyzed using Fisher's exact test or the Wilcoxon rank-sum test.RESULTS: While the proportion of surgeons who published a first-author paper during training remained stable over the past twodecades (178/228 [78.1%] versus 189/247 [76.5%], P=0.7427), the proportion who published a first-author BSR paper decreased significantly (135/228 [59.2%] versus 96/247 [38.9%], P<0.0001). Among surgeons who published a first-author paper in training, the total papers published by each trainee did not change over the past twodecades (3.5 versus 3.3 first-author papers per 10y of training, P=0.8819). However, the number of BSR papers published during training decreased significantly (1.7 versus 0.8 first-author papers per 10y of training, P<0.0001).CONCLUSIONS: CT surgery trainees are publishing fewer BSR papers. Additional efforts are needed to increase exposure of trainees to BSR and reaffirm that BSR is a valuable and worthwhile pursuit for academic surgeons.

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.jss.2022.06.020

View details for PubMedID 35809356