W. C. Frankel1, B. G. Scott2, N. Massarweh2,3, E. J. Silberfein2, Q. Zhang2, T. K. Rosengart4,5, S. A. LeMaire4,5, B. W. Trautner2,3 3Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center,Center For Innovations In Quality, Effectiveness, And Safety (IQuESt),Houston, TX, USA 4Baylor College Of Medicine,Division Of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Michael E. DeBakey Department Of Surgery,Houston, TX, USA 5Texas Heart Institute,Department Of Cardiovascular Surgery,Houston, TX, USA 1Baylor College of Medicine,Houston, TX, USA 2Baylor College Of Medicine,Michael E. DeBakey Department Of Surgery,Houston, TX, USA
Introduction:
The ACGME requires residency programs to create an environment of scholarship with an active research component. In 2013, to increase research engagement within our general surgery residency program, the program directors launched a multifaceted intervention to provide education and infrastructure to support residents’ research. We evaluated the efficacy of this intervention on the academic productivity of surgery residents, as measured by manuscripts published.
Methods:
The multifaceted intervention began in 2013 by making residents’ travel funding for their chief trip contingent upon submitting three manuscripts by the chief year. A formal research curriculum was implemented, along with a Department of Surgery Residents’ Research Day. Infrastructure to support residents’ research, including a biostatistician and medical editor, was provided and publicized widely.
We measured academic productivity by the mean number of manuscripts published per chief resident graduating in a given year, for the four years prior to launching the program (2010-2013; n=28) and the four years following implementation (2014-2017; n=29). Manuscripts were identified by searching PubMed by resident’s name plus our institution, and were included if published within one year of residency graduation. Chief residents were stratified by research track (n=23) versus non-research track (n=34). We applied independent two-sample t-tests or Mann-Whitney U tests to compare research productivity before and after program implementation.
Results:
Implementation of the multifaceted program led to a significant increase in research productivity overall (see Figure), with chief residents, on average, publishing 2.3 manuscripts before and 8.5 manuscripts after implementation (difference of 6.2, 95% CI: 2.1, 10.4; p=0.01). For the research track residents specifically, their average publications were 6.3 prior to and 15.4 after the new program, not significantly increased (difference of 9.1, 95% CI: -2.4, 20.6; p=0.10). The median publications for non-research track residents was 0.9 (IQR: 0.5, 1.0) prior to and 1.3 (IQR: 1.2, 8.6) after the new program (difference of 0.4; p=0.03).
Conclusion:
Implementation of a multifaceted intervention to increase academic productivity was associated with a significant increase in the number of manuscripts published per resident overall and among the non-research track residents. The research track residents had higher productivity at baseline, and their increased publications did not achieve statistical significance. Our results suggest that surgery residents, particularly the non-research track residents, benefit from structured research education and support. Given the ACGME requirement that residents engage in research, some of the components of our intervention might have value to other programs, and in turn the ACGME may consider creating program metrics around these components.
