The Power of Partnership: Exploring Patterns of Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration in Plastic Surgery

Plastic surgery thrives on collaboration across disciplines, yet the extent and impact of interdisciplinary research within the field remain poorly understood. This study quantified collaboration patterns among academic plastic surgery residency programs and evaluated their association with research productivity, funding, and journal influence.

PubMed was queried for articles published by academic plastic surgery programs from 2018 to 2023. Articles were considered collaborative when the senior author was affiliated with a plastic surgery division and at least 1 coauthor represented a different department or specialty.

Among 6686 publications, 44.8% (n = 2992) involved interdisciplinary collaboration. Most collaborations occurred with surgical specialties (56.1%), particularly general surgery (17.4%), otolaryngology (14.6%), and orthopedic surgery (11.8%). Medical specialties accounted for 38.1% of collaborations, led by genetics and genomics (13.9%), whereas engineering represented the largest nonmedical collaborator (7.6%). Institutional productivity was not associated with collaboration rate (R ^² = 0.01, P = 0.60). Collaborative studies were more frequently published in non-plastic surgery journals (P < 0.001), which had higher impact factors than plastic surgery journals. Institutions with greater STEM collaboration demonstrated significantly higher overall research funding ($2.32 ± $1.05 billion versus $2.03 ± $1.12 billion, P < 0.001).

Interdisciplinary collaborations are common in plastic surgery research and are associated with publication in higher impact journals and increased institutional funding. Strategic partnerships across disciplines may enhance the academic reach and funding potential of plastic surgery research programs.