Progressive Increase in Scholarly Productivity of New American Board of Anesthesiology Diplomates From 2006 to 2016: A Bibliometric Analysis

BACKGROUND:Improving research productivity is a common goal in academic anesthesiology. Initiatives to enhance scholarly productivity in anesthesiology were proposed more than a decade ago as a result of emphasis on clinical work. We hypothesized that American Board of Anesthesiology diplomates certified from 2006 to 2016 would be progressively more likely to have published at least once during this time period. METHODS:A complete list of 17,332 new diplomates was obtained from the American Board of Anesthesiology for the years 2006 to 2016. These names were queried using PubMed, and the number of publications up to and including the diplomate’s year of primary certification was recorded. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression analysis were used to analyze the association of the year of primary certification and whether a diplomate had published at least once. RESULTS:The percentage of American Board of Anesthesiology diplomates with ≥1 publication at the time of primary certification increased from 14.9% to 29.3% from 2006 to 2016. The mean number of publications per diplomate more than doubled from 0.31 to 0.79. Logistic regression analysis revealed the year of primary certification as significantly associated with having ≥1 publication (P < .001). Using 2006 as the reference year, odds of having published at least once were higher in the years 2010 to 2016, with the highest odds ratio of having a article published occurring in 20162.359 (confidence interval, 1.978–2.812; P < .001). CONCLUSIONS:Publications by new diplomates of the American Board of Anesthesiology have increased between 2006 and 2016. Whether the observed increase in publications could reflect efforts to stimulate interest in academic objectives during training remains to be proven.