Does Intentional Support of Degree Programs in General Surgery Residency Affect Research Productivity or Pursuit of Academic Surgery?

Objective Many residents supplement general surgery training with years of dedicated research, and an increasing number at our institution pursue additional degrees. We sought to determine whether it was worth the financial cost for residency programs to support degrees. Design We reviewed graduating chief residents (n = 69) in general surgery at Vanderbilt University from 2001 to 2010 and collected the data including research time and additional degrees obtained. We then compared this information with the following parameters: (1) total papers, (2) first-author papers, (3) Journal Citation Reports impact factors of journals in which papers were published, and (4) first job after residency or fellowship training. Setting The general surgery resident training program at Vanderbilt University is an academic program, approved to finish training 7 chief residents yearly during the time period studied. Participants Chief residents in general surgery at Vanderbilt who finished their training 2001 through 2010. Results We found that completion of a degree during residency was significantly associated with more total and first-author publications as compared with those by residents with only dedicated research time (p = 0.001 and p = 0.017). Residents completing a degree also produced publications of a higher caliber and level of authorship as determined by an adjusted resident impact factor score as compared with those by residents with laboratory research time only (p = 0.005). Degree completion also was significantly correlated with a first job in academia if compared to those with dedicated research time only (p = 0.046). Conclusions Our data support the utility of degree completion when economically feasible and use of dedicated research time as an effective way to significantly increase research productivity and retain graduates in academic surgery. Aggregating data from other academic surgery programs would allow us to further determine association of funding of additional degrees as a means to encourage academic productivity and retention.