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A Comprehensive Review Of Medical Student First Author Publications In Plastic Surgery
Thomas J. Sorenson, BS¹, Abhinav Lamba, BS¹, Matthew D. Rich, MD¹, Ruth J. Barta, MD², Warren V. Schubert, MD^1,2.
¹University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA, ²Regions Hospital, Saint Paul, MN, USA.

Purpose The integrated plastic surgery residency match is a highly competitive process. If performed wisely, medical research is an opportunity to differentiate application from peers, and productivity is closely evaluated by residency programs. In this study, we aimed to characterize medical student research productivity for integrated plastic surgery residency programs and their respective medical schools.Methods A retrospective review of senior author publications from the 81 integrated plastic surgery programs from January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2020 was performed. The primary outcome was publication with a medical student as the first author. Secondary outcomes included number of faculty from each program, geographic region of program, and ranking of associated medical school.Results The average number of medical student first author publications and faculty members per institution were 14.0 and 11.0, respectively. There was a positive correlation between number of faculty members and number of medical student first author publications for a program (R = 0.54, p < 0.0001). The average number of medical student first author publications was higher at top 25 programs than for the remaining programs (p < 0.001). Conclusions Most medical student first author publications in the United States are produced by 10 plastic surgery programs. Programs associated with higher ranking medical schools produce greater numbers of medical student first author publications. These analyses of medical student academic productivity should be a highly useful guide for current and future medical students as they strategize their successful match into plastic surgery.
Figure 1. Scatterplot showing the correlation between number medical student of first author plastic surgery publications and number of faculty member in plastic surgery department.
Figure 2. Geographic variation of medical student first author publication volume. (A) Chart depicting the percentage of the top 25 medical student first author publishing programs by region. (B) Scatterplot representing the number of medical student first author publications by plastic surgery department region.
Figure 3. Scatterplot representing U.S. News & World Report and NIH funding ranking for the top 25 medical student first author publication programs.
Figure 4. Plastic surgery departments that comprise top 25 programs as measured by National Institutes of Health funding and U.S. News & World Report have higher mean publications compared with all other plastic surgery programs. Student t test: **p < 0.001.

Program Name	Total First Author Medical Student Publications	Number of Faculty	Relative Ratio
University of Pennsylvania Health System	81	16	5.1
Baylor College of Medicine	72	11	6.5
NYU Grossman School of Medicine	70	37	1.9
University of Michigan Health System	62	20	3.1
Yale-New Haven Medical Center	58	11	5.3
Brigham and Women's Hospital/Harvard Medical School	53	34	1.6
Stanford Health Care-sponsored Stanford University	53	16	3.3
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center	49	12	4.1
University of Southern California/LAC+USC Medical Center	41	8	5.1
Duke University Hospital	39	14	2.8
MedStar Health/Georgetown University Hospital	37	14	2.6
Washington University/Barnes-Jewish Hospital/St Louis Children's Hospital Consortium	31	15	2.1
New York Presbyterian Hospital (Columbia and Cornell Campus)	28	22	1.3
Rutgers Health/New Jersey Medical School	26	4	6.5
Johns Hopkins University/University of Maryland	24	20	1.2
Vanderbilt University Medical Center	21	13	1.6
Brown University	20	12	1.7
University of California, Los Angeles	18	16	1.1
University of Miami/Jackson Health System	17	12	1.4
McGaw Medical Center of Northwestern University	15	22	0.7
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Medical Education	15	20	0.8
Rush University Medical Center	14	7	2.0
University of Chicago	14	11	1.3
Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University	13	7	1.9
Spectrum Health/Michigan State University	13	24	0.5
Cleveland Clinic Foundation	12	22	0.5
Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science (Rochester)	11	12	0.9
Medical University of South Carolina College of Medicine	11	6	1.8
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center	11	17	0.6
University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics	11	12	0.9
Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell	10	9	1.1
Indiana University School of Medicine	9	14	0.6
University of Colorado School of Medicine	9	12	0.8
Case Western Reserve University/University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center	8	15	0.5
Louisiana State University School of Medicine	8	10	0.8
University of Florida	8	7	1.1
University of Rochester	8	7	1.1
Ohio State University Hospital	7	17	0.4
Oregon Health & Science University	7	10	0.7
Penn State Milton S Hershey Medical Center	7	9	0.8
University of California, San Francisco	7	14	0.5
University of California, Irvine	6	8	0.8

University of Cincinnati Medical Center/College of Medicine	6	7	0.9
University of Kansas School of Medicine	6	12	0.5
University of Washington	6	17	0.4
Lahey Clinic	5	7	0.7
Lehigh Valley Health Network/University of South Florida College of Medicine	5	9	0.6
Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science (Arizona)	5	8	0.6
University of California, Davis	5	6	0.8
University of Virginia Medical Center	5	7	0.7
Emory University School of Medicine	4	8	0.5
Nassau University Medical Center/Stony Brook University	4	8	0.5
St Louis University School of Medicine	4	5	0.8
University of Kentucky College of Medicine	4	5	0.8
University of Utah Health	4	8	0.5
Prisma Health/University of South Carolina School of Medicine, Columbia	3	11	0.3
University of Nevada Las Vegas School of Medicine	3	5	0.6
University of New Mexico School of Medicine	3	1	3.0
University of North Carolina Hospitals	3	6	0.5
University of Texas Medical Branch Hospitals	3	9	0.3
Virginia Commonwealth University Health System	3	9	0.3
Wake Forest University School of Medicine	3	10	0.3
Albany Medical Center	2	7	0.3
Dartmouth- Hitchcock/Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital	2	7	0.3
Medical College of Wisconsin Affiliated Hospitals	2	16	0.1
University of Tennessee College of Medicine	2	8	0.3
Carilion Clinic- Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine	1	5	0.2
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai	1	9	0.1
Loma Linda University Health Education Consortium	1	21	0.0
Southern Illinois University	1	5	0.2
University of Massachusetts	1	8	0.1
University of Missouri, Columbia	1	4	0.3
Cooper Hospital-University Medical Center	0	8	0.0
Geisinger Health System	0	7	0.0
Loyola University Medical Center	0	4	0.0
Texas A&M College of Medicine-Scott and White Medical Center, Temple	0	6	0.0
University of California, San Diego	0	6	0.0
University of Minnesota	0	4	0.0
University of Mississippi School of Medicine	0	7	0.0
West Virginia University School of Medicine	0	4	0.0
Wright State University	0	3	0.0

Table 1. Program ranking based on total first author medical student publications

	Mid-Atlantic (n=13)	Midwest (n=16)	Northeast (n=17)	South (n=16)	Southwest (n=6)	West (n=13)
Average Total First Author Medical Student Publications (±SD)	15.5 (±22.3)	12.1 (±15.5)	20.6 (±23.0)	12.25 (±18.8)	5.6 (±4.3)	12.0 (±16.3)
Average Total Faculty (±SD)	12.5 (±6.4)	11.7 (±6.6)	12.3 (±9.6)	8.7 (±2.8)	9.2 (±5.4)	11 (±5.1)

Table 2. Geographic distribution of medical student publication productivity in plastic surgery

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