Academic Rank and Productivity Among United States Cardiothoracic Surgeons

Despite a significant growth of women trainees in cardiothoracic surgery recently, women remain a minority of cardiothoracic surgeons and hold a minority of leadership positions. This study evaluates differences in cardiothoracic surgeon subspecialty choices, academic rank, and academic productivity between men and women.

The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education database was used to identify 78 cardiothoracic surgery academic programs in the United States, including integrated, 4+3, and traditional fellowships, as of June 2020. A total of 1179 faculty members were identified within these programs, 585 adult cardiac surgeons (50%), 386 thoracic surgeons (33%), and 168 congenital surgeons (14%), and other, 40 (3%). Data were collected using institutional websites, ctsnet.org, doximity.com, linkedin.com, and Scopus.

Of the 1179 surgeons, only 9.6% were women. Overall, women composed 6.7% of adult cardiac, 15% of thoracic, and 7.7% of congenital surgeons. Among subspecialties, women represent 4.5% (17 of 376) of full professors and 5% (11 of 195) of division chiefs in cardiothoracic surgery in the United States, have shorter career durations, and lower h-indices compared with men. However, women had similar m-indices, which factors in career length, compared with men in adult cardiac (0.63 vs 0.73), thoracic (0.77 vs 0.90), and congenital (0.67 vs 0.78) surgeons.

Career duration, including cumulative research productivity, appears to be the most important factors predicting full professor rank, potentially contributing to persistent sex-based disparities in academic cardiothoracic surgery.