Analysis of Factors That Influence Academic Productivity Among Neurological and Orthopedic Spine Surgeons.

BACKGROUND Academic productivity plays a growing role in professional advancement in academic medicine. OBJECTIVE This study aims to assess academic productivity among spine surgeons. It investigates differences in h-indices between neurological and orthopedic spine surgeons. METHODS The American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) Neurosurgical Residency Training Program Directory provided names of US and Canadian academic neurological surgeons. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools (RePORT) database was consulted for the surgeons' NIH funding statuses. Scopus yielded the h-indices. Orthopedic spine surgeons were identified at the same institutions as the neurological spine surgeons, and their NIH funding statuses and h-indices were identified from the same databases. Statistical analysis investigated differences between the disciplines and across the categories of NIH funding reception, having a Ph.D., and academic rank. RESULTS Two hundred fifteen neurological and 513 orthopedic spine surgeons met inclusion criteria. Neurological spine surgeons had a mean h-index of 21.16, and orthopedic spine surgeons had a mean h-index of 14.08 (p < 0.0001). Neurological surgeons with NIH funding had higher (p < 0.0001) h-indices (34.15) than those without it (19.29). Orthopedic surgeons with NIH funding had higher (p < 0.001) h-indices (42.83) than those without it (13.39). Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) showed that departmental chairmen and professors had higher h-indices than associate or assistant professors among neurological surgeons (p < 0.01) and orthopedic surgeons (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS These results demonstrate the importance of the h-index in measuring academic productivity among neurological and orthopedic spine surgeons.