The Society of Vascular Surgery International Scholars Program: The First Decade

The Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) is a not-for-profit medical society, whose goal is to further advance in vascular health on a global scale. With its 10th anniversary in sight, we were interested in analyzing the impact of a specific scholarship given under the SVS, the International Scholars Program. Our goal was to examine the awardees' characteristics and academic productivity.

We measured the number of peer-reviewed articles, before and after the program, using PubMed® and Google Scholar® (2008-2018) of the scholarship recipients. Editorials, book chapters, letter to editor, and oral/poster presentations were excluded. A survey was sent out to assess the awardees' current status.

The average number of applicants/year was 15.4 (standard deviation ± 6.69), with 17.5% females and a mean age of 37 ± 3.37 years, with 5.6 ± 2.30 years status post vascular fellowship. Brazil had the highest number of recipients (n = 5; 18.5%) followed by China (n = 4; 14.8%). No significant difference was noted between each country in terms of publications (P = .45), nor with after the SVS scholarship program compared to before (P = .14, 1.84 vs 2.76). The survey concluded 33% had attended a subsequent SVS meeting after the program, with 27% having presented their research (n = 15). The recipients noted the program helped adopt new practices in clinical management (n = 13, 87%), learn new procedures (n = 10, 67%), gain local/regional leadership (n = 9, 60%), and improve technical skills (n = 8, 53%). The most visited clinical sites were Massachusetts General Hospital and Mayo Clinic (n = 4, 27%). The program was given a 9.1/10 rating.

The program was successful in maintaining academic productivity by continuing to publish research even after the scholarship, while teaching recipients skills to further improve their career goals. The award remains a competitive process that selects highly skilled recipients and still has much growth and progress to look forward to over the next decade.