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. 2022 Oct;46(10):2526-2535.
doi: 10.1007/s00268-022-06661-3. Epub 2022 Jul 24.

Impact of PhD Degree Versus Non-PhD Research Fellowship on Future Research Productivity Among Academic Cardiothoracic Surgeons

Simar S Bajaj  1 , Hanjay Wang  1 , Kiah M Williams  1 , Joseph C Heiler  1 , Joshua M Pickering  1 , Keerthi Manjunatha  1 , Christian T O'Donnell  1 , Mark Sanchez  1 , Jack H Boyd  2
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Impact of PhD Degree Versus Non-PhD Research Fellowship on Future Research Productivity Among Academic Cardiothoracic Surgeons

Simar S Bajaj et al. World J Surg. 2022 Oct.

Abstract

Background: A PhD degree can offer significant research experience, but previous studies yielded conflicting conclusions on the relationship between a PhD degree and future research output. We compared the impact of a PhD degree versus research fellowship (RF) training on research productivity in cardiothoracic surgeons, hypothesizing that training pathways may influence potential associations.

Methods: CT surgeons practicing at all accredited United States CT surgery training programs in 2018 who pursued dedicated time for research (n = 597), including earning a PhD degree (n = 92) or completing a non-PhD RF (n = 505), were included. To control for training pathways, we performed subanalyses of U.S. medical school graduates (n = 466) and international medical school graduates (IMGs) (n = 131). Surgeon-specific data were obtained from publicly available sources (e.g., institutional webpages, Scopus).

Results: PhD surgeons published greater total papers (68.5 vs. 52.0, p = 0.0179) and total papers per year as an attending (4.6 vs. 3.0, p = 0.0150). For U.S. medical school graduates, there were 40 PhD surgeons and 426 non-PhD RF surgeons; both groups published a similar number of total papers (64.5 vs. 54.0, p = 0.3738) and total papers per year (3.2 vs. 3.0, p = 0.7909). For IMGs, there were 52 PhD surgeons and 79 non-PhD RF surgeons; the PhD surgeons published greater total papers (80.5 vs. 45.0, p = 0.0101) and total papers per year (5.7 vs. 2.7, p = 0.0037).

Conclusion: CT surgeons with dedicated research training are highly academically productive. Although a PhD degree may be associated with enhanced career-long research productivity for IMGs, this association was not observed for U.S. medical school graduates.

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References

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