The Impact of Graduate Medical Education on Scholarly Activity at a Military Medical Treatment Facility

Graduate medical education (GME) faculty and trainees have required scholarly activities to meet accreditation requirements. The impact of this contribution to the Military Health System, especially regarding innovations in military medicine, has not been previously examined. This study measured the contribution of GME in published manuscripts from a tertiary military medical center.

Utilizing the Scopus database, published manuscripts from the primary military GME institutions for the San Antonio Uniformed Services Health Education Consortium were identified from 2008 to 2018. Manuscripts were sorted based on the number of citations in Scopus and analyzed for their overall impact in medicine to include military unique topics.

A total of 3,700 manuscripts were identified through Scopus and based on a 10 citation minimum, 1,365 manuscripts were further analyzed; 1,152 (84.4%) included authors with GME affiliation and 554 (40.6%) had direct applicability to unique aspects of military medicine. The mean number of citations per manuscript was 39.2 ± 63.6; Mean Cite Score was 2.97 ± 2.14 and Field Weighted Citation Index of 2.22 ± 3.27. Analysis of number of citations (10-19; 20-39; or >40) did not show any significant differences in Cite Score or military relevance, whereas the percentage of military relevant articles remained consistent yearly.

These findings highlight the importance of military medical research and addressing specific medical needs of the warfighter. Graduate medical education in a tertiary Military Health System facility has enormous impact in scholarly activity, in particular the importance related to military medicine topics that emphasize combat casualty care and military readiness.