Characterization of Cardiothoracic Surgeons Actively Leading Basic Science Research

Background: There is increasing concern regarding the attrition of surgeon-scientists in car-diothoracic (CT) surgery. However, the characteristics of CT surgeons who are actively lead-ing basic science research (BSR) have not been examined. We hypothesized that early ex-posure to BSR during training and active grant funding are important factors that facilitate the pursuit of BSR among practicing CT surgeons. Materials and methods: We created a database of 992 CT surgeons listed as faculty at ac-credited United States CT surgery teaching hospitals in 2018. Data regarding each surgeon's training/professional history, publication record, and National Institutes of Health funding were acquired from publicly available online sources. Surgeons who published at least one first-or last-author paper in 2017-2018 were considered to be active, lead researchers. Results: Of the 992 CT surgeons, 73 (7.4%) were actively leading BSR, and 599 (60.4%) were actively leading only non-BSR. Only 2 women were actively leading BSR. Surgeons actively leading BSR were more likely to have earned a PhD degree (20.5% versus 9.7%, P = 0.0049), and more likely to have published a first-author BSR paper during training (76.7% versus 40.9%, P < 0.0001). Surgeons actively leading BSR were also more likely to have an active National Institutes of Health grant (34.2% versus 5.8%, P < 0.0001), especially an R01 grant (21.9% versus 2.5%, P < 0.0001). Conclusions: A small minority of CT surgeons at academic training hospitals are actively leading BSR. In order to facilitate the development of surgeon-scientists, additional support must be given to trainees and junior faculty, especially women, to enable early engagement in BSR. (c) 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.