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H-indices: A Comparative Analysis Of Demographic Data Of Venous And Vascular Society Presidents
Christopher Papatheofanis, MS, Mohammad Nizamuddin, MA, Tyler Santos, BS, Ryan Bonner, BS, Hason Khan, MS, Natalie Marks, MD, Enrico Ascher, MD, Anil Hingorani, MD.
Vascular Institute of New York, New York, NY, USA.

OBJECTIVES: North American and European vascular and venous societies are composed of a diverse array of individuals from many countries spanning the globe. Leaders of these societies help influence the priorities, policies, and research directions of vascular and venous medicine. This study aims to compare demographic characteristics of the presidents by examining factors such as age, ethnicity, and gender as well as the H-index, or Hirsch index: A metric used to evaluate the impact and productivity of a researcher's work.
METHODS: Age, ethnicity, and gender were determined using multiple online sources. The year of ascendancy to the presidency and the year of birth were used as identifying markers. H-indices were collected as a measure of academic impact. Statistical significance was assessed using Student’s t-test, with p<0.05 indicating significance.
RESULTS: We collected demographic data for 544 presidents across 11 vascular societies (SVS, VESS, SCVS, EVS, WVS, SAVS, MVSS, NESVS, CSVS, SVM, ESVS) and 4 venous societies (AVF, AVLS, EVF, UIP) from North America and Europe. Presidents' ages ranged widely, but the average age was relatively consistent across societies, with SVM presidents being the oldest (60.5 ± 1.9, SD=7.8) and MVSS presidents being the youngest (37.2 ± 0.8, SD=5.6). Female presidents comprised 3.5% of the total number of presidents. The average H-index varied across societies, with SVM presidents having the highest (59.5 ± 8.5, SD=35.9) and CSVS having the lowest (15.5 ± 1.7, SD=11.1). Presidents from venous societies had lower average H-indices than their vascular counterparts (31.9 vs. 38.8, p<0.05). The H-indices for both vascular and venous society presidents were lower in the past 5 years when compared to the prior decade (28.1 vs. 34.9, p<0.001). When compared to every other vascular and venous society average H-index in the last 5 years, MVSS had the highest average H-index (44.3). Societies with a higher percentage of female presidents were independently correlated with a higher average H-index in the last 5 years (p<0.001).
CONCLUSIONS: Our data show wide variability among age and H-indices, with a narrower range of diversity among ethnicity and gender. The decrease in emphasis on personal research impact suggests a shift in criteria preference for presidential candidacy in recent years.
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