Impact Of Integrated Vascular Surgery Residency Training Pathway And Professional Development Time On Career Choice And Research Productivity
Arash Fereydooni, MD MS MHS1, Andrea T. Fisher, MD1, Danielle M. Mullis, BS1, Brigitte K. Smith, MD2, Michael D. Sgroi, MD1.
1Stanford School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA, 2University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.
Objectives: The limited availability of academic surgery positions has led to increased competition for these jobs. Integrated vascular surgery residency (IVSR) allows for earlier specialization, with some programs providing professional development time (PDT). We hypothesized that IVSR and PDT lead to academic employment and increased research productivity.
Methods: After review of the research protocol, the APDVS provided a list of vascular surgery fellowship (VSF) and IVSR graduates. Training, number of publications, H-index, NIH funding, and employment history were collected using institutional websites, Doximity, Scopus, PubMed and NIH Research Portfolio Reporting.
Results: From 2013-2017, comparison of IVSR (n=131) to VSF (n=603) graduates showed that IVSR was more likely to have a higher proportion of women (38.17% vs 28.19%; P=0.024), MD graduates (99.24% vs 93.37%; P=0.008), programs in the northeast (41.98% vs 27.5%; P<0.001), advanced degrees (13.74% vs 6.97%; P=0.01) and larger programs (median 15 vs 14 faculty; P=0.013). There was no significant difference in number of publications per trainee by the end of training (median 4 vs 3; P=0.61) or annual trend in average number of publications. After training, there was no significant difference in the type of practice, academic affiliation, practice region, publication number, H-index, NIH funding, level of academic appointment or leadership positions (Table 1).
From 2013-2019, comparison of IVSR graduates with (n=32) and without PDT (n=190) demonstrated that those with PDT were more likely to be women (53.13% vs 34.74%; P=0.038), have advanced degrees (28.12% vs 8.95%; P=0.002), be at larger programs (median 14 vs 9 faculty; P<0.001) and often at a top 10 NIH funded program (65.62% vs 21.58%; P<0.001) and publish more by the end of IVSR (median 9 vs 3; P<0.001). Graduates with PDT were more likely to have academic employment (32.63% vs 59.38%; P=0.034), higher publication rate (1.06 vs 3.09 publication/year; P<0.001) and greater H-index (3 vs 7; P<0.001).
Conclusion: IVSR and VSF graduates have comparable academic employment and research productivity. However, PDT during IVSR correlates with an eventual academic career and greater research productivity. This study supports the importance of continuing both training paradigms and providing PDT to develop academic vascular surgeons. 
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