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What does it take to be a successful pediatric surgeon-scientist?
Carey Watson1, Alice King1, Shaheel Mitra1
1Division of Pediatric, Thoracic and General Surgery, Cincinnati Children's Hospital and the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH.
Background:
The factors that contribute to success as a pediatric surgeon-scientist are not well defined. The purpose of this study is to define a group of NIH-funded pediatric surgeons, assess their academic productivity, and elucidate factors that have contributed to their success.
Methods:
Pediatric surgeons were queried in the NIH report database to determine NIH funding awarded. Academic productivity was then assessed. An online survey was then targeted to NIH-funded pediatric surgeons.
Results:
Since 1988, 83 pediatric surgeon-investigators have received major NIH funding. Currently, there are 37 pediatric surgeons with 43 NIH-sponsored awards. The mean h-index of this group of pediatric surgeons was 18 ± 1.1, mean number of publications (since 2001) was 21 ± 2.1, and both increase commensurate with academic rank. In response to the survey, 81% engaged in research during their surgical residency, and 48% were mentored by a pediatric surgeon-scientist. More than 60% of respondents had significant protected time and financial support. Factors felt to be most significant for academic success included mentorship, perseverance, and protected time.
Conclusions:
Mentorship, perseverance, institutional commitment to protected research time, and financial support are considered to be important to facilitate the successes of pediatric surgeon-scientists. These results will be useful to aspiring pediatric surgeon-scientists and departments wishing to develop a robust research program.
