Does the Organization of Plastic Surgery into Independent Departments Affect Academic Productivity?

Purpose: To determine whether or not departmental status (independent department vs. division) affects academic productivity in plastic surgery, as measured by publications, citations and NIH funding.

Materials and Methods: Scholarly metrics were determined for 955 faculty at the 88 ACGME plastic surgery departments and divisions with residency programs. Divisions and departments were ranked based on publications, citations and NIH funding and general characteristics were compared. 

Results: The majority of programs continue to be divisions of general surgery (64 vs 24).  The highest cited plastic surgery program in this dataset was at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Stanford University had the highest mean H-index of faculty, and University of Michigan had the highest total numbers of NIH awards. There were no clear differences between the top five institutions by each category regarding whether they were divisions or independent departments. Departments had higher numbers of integrated residents (9 vs. 5, p = 0.03), had a more even male to female ratio (2.8 vs 4.1, p = 0.06), and a trend towards higher numbers of PhDs (0.67 vs 0.28 p = 0.1).

Conclusions:  No one program is the strongest in every metric of productivity, and the top five most academically productive programs using the metrics in this study represented both independent departments and divisions of general surgery. NIH grants, integrated residencies and individual achievements may be more important than overall departmental organization in determining the academic success of a plastic surgery program.