Barriers to Research for Academic Otologists/Neurotologists in the United States

The physician-scientist workforce is shrinking in the United States. Academic otologists/neurotologists face a diverse set of barriers to successful careers. We aimed to characterize the factors affecting contemporary otology/neurotology surgeon-scientists.

An electronic survey was distributed to faculty members of the American Neurotology Society and the American Otological Society in 2021. The survey queried demographics, practice setting, compensation, and barriers to conducting research for respondents in academic practice.

One hundred fifty-seven otologists/neurotologists responded to the survey, corresponding to an overall response rate of 25%. Of the respondents, 94 were in academic practice. The median protected research time was 0.5 days/wk, whereas the mode was zero. Across academic rank, salary compensation was lower for academic surgeons with active research funding and for female academic surgeons as compared with their male counterparts. Grant-funded female academic surgeons had significantly worse compensation compared with rank-matched male surgeons with similar protected time. No grant-funded female earned more than the 30th percentile for their rank. Identified barriers to research were pressure to maintain clinical productivity, insufficient protected time, and personal/family demands. Respondents highlighted several areas for improvement: compensation for research activity, administrative support, and improved grant funding mechanisms for clinician-scientists.

Otology/neurotology surgeon-scientists face barriers to research, including limited protected time, poor administrative support, increasingly competitive funding environments, and misaligned compensation models. New initiatives by the National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders aim to increase the surgeon-scientist workforce, but their success may depend upon removing identified barriers at the level of academic institutions.