Post-Fellowship Foot and Ankle Surgeon Research Productivity: A Systematic Review.

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

The Journal of foot and ankle surgery : official publication of the American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons

Abstract

Though foot and ankle surgery fellowships have been around for decades, contributing factors for long-term research productivity remain unreported. Along with enhancing surgical training, the American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons (ACFAS) tasked programs with fostering research in effort to continue post-fellowship investigations. As the number of fellowship programs and fellows continues to increase, this study attempts to identifies factors associated with postfellowship research success. A PubMed search of peer-reviewed literature authored by ACFAS recognized 1-year fellowship graduates from 2000-2018 was conducted. Demographic data including current practice type and location was collected. Research activity at the 3, 5, and 10-year postfellowship period was investigated between publication history and current practice type. Statistical significance was set at p ≤ .05. Among the 37 fellowships assessed, 132 fellows were eligible for analysis. Most fellows maintained hospital-based employment 46 (34%) followed by private 44 (33%) and orthopedic group 30 (22%) practices. The proportion of fellows that published 5 and 10 years postfellowship was associated with research productivity 3 and 5 years postfellowship (p ≤ .03). The odds of publishing 3 years post-fellowship in orthopedic groups and university-based practices were 1.62 and 4.42 times higher compared to hospital-based graduates, respectively. The odds of publishing 5 years post-fellowship in orthopedic group and university based practices were 3.5 and 6.63 times higher than hospital-based practices, respectively. Despite the growing number of fellowships, a small proportion of fellows continue publishing postfellowship. These findings support the need to provide resources to engage graduates if retaining young practitioners in scholarly activity is desired.

First Page

896

Last Page

899

DOI

10.1053/j.jfas.2021.12.028

Publication Date

7-1-2022

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