TY - JOUR
T1 - Factors associated with academic rank among chronic pain medicine faculty in the USA
AU - Orhurhu, Mariam Salisu
AU - Orhurhu, Vwaire
AU - Salisu, Bisola
AU - Abimbola, Adeniyi
AU - Cohen, Steven P.
N1 - Funding Information:
To identify pain medicine faculty, a list of 102 academic pain medicine fellowship programs was compiled using the American Medical Association Fellowship and Residency Electronic Interactive Database Access. We excluded four military-based programs, wherein most hospitals were geographically separated from the medical school and military experience (eg, deployments) are considered. A final list of 98 civilian pain medicine programs was used for the study. Departmental websites in the USA were accessed between September 1st 2018 and December 30th of 2018 for pain medicine faculty listings. The listings were used to build a list of faculty members for each program. All collected data were publicly available and non-physicians were excluded.
Publisher Copyright:
© American Society of Regional Anesthesia & Pain Medicine 2020. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.
PY - 2020/8/1
Y1 - 2020/8/1
N2 - Background Numerous factors are considered in the academic promotion of pain medicine physicians. In this study, we investigated the importance of research productivity, career duration, leadership, and gender on attaining professorship in chronic pain medicine fellowship programs in the USA. Methods We identified 98 pain fellowship programs in the American Medical Association Fellowship and Residency Electronic Interactive Database. Faculty demographics and institutional characteristics were obtained from institutional websites, and h-index (number of publications (h) cited at least h times) and m-index (h-index divided by research career duration) were calculated from Scopus. A nested mixed effect hierarchical modeling was used to determine factors that were associated with attaining professorship. Results A total of 696 chronic pain medicine faculty members from 98 academic pain fellowship programs were identified, of whom 74.7% were males. For the 15.5% who were full professors, the median h-index was 16.5 (6.0 to 30.0), the median career duration was 20.5 (16.0 to 27.0) years, and the median m-index was 0.7 (0.3 to 1.3). In an adjusted analysis, the top quartile (compared with bottom) h-index (OR 6.27; 95% CI: 2.11 to 18.59), publication citations (OR 1.13; 95% CI: 1.10 to 1.21), division chief position (OR 3.72; 95% CI: 1.62 to 8.50), institutions located in the western region (OR 3.81; 95% CI: 1.52 to 9.57), and graduating from a foreign medical school (OR 1.98; 95% CI: 1.10 to 3.92) were independently associated with attaining professorship (p<0.05), but gender was not (p=0.71). Conclusions Our study shows that, higher h-index, publication citations, division chief position, affiliation at a lower tier medical school, and location in the Western region were independently associated with full professorship, whereas gender was not. The identified variables for professorship may be considered as factors in faculty promotions.
AB - Background Numerous factors are considered in the academic promotion of pain medicine physicians. In this study, we investigated the importance of research productivity, career duration, leadership, and gender on attaining professorship in chronic pain medicine fellowship programs in the USA. Methods We identified 98 pain fellowship programs in the American Medical Association Fellowship and Residency Electronic Interactive Database. Faculty demographics and institutional characteristics were obtained from institutional websites, and h-index (number of publications (h) cited at least h times) and m-index (h-index divided by research career duration) were calculated from Scopus. A nested mixed effect hierarchical modeling was used to determine factors that were associated with attaining professorship. Results A total of 696 chronic pain medicine faculty members from 98 academic pain fellowship programs were identified, of whom 74.7% were males. For the 15.5% who were full professors, the median h-index was 16.5 (6.0 to 30.0), the median career duration was 20.5 (16.0 to 27.0) years, and the median m-index was 0.7 (0.3 to 1.3). In an adjusted analysis, the top quartile (compared with bottom) h-index (OR 6.27; 95% CI: 2.11 to 18.59), publication citations (OR 1.13; 95% CI: 1.10 to 1.21), division chief position (OR 3.72; 95% CI: 1.62 to 8.50), institutions located in the western region (OR 3.81; 95% CI: 1.52 to 9.57), and graduating from a foreign medical school (OR 1.98; 95% CI: 1.10 to 3.92) were independently associated with attaining professorship (p<0.05), but gender was not (p=0.71). Conclusions Our study shows that, higher h-index, publication citations, division chief position, affiliation at a lower tier medical school, and location in the Western region were independently associated with full professorship, whereas gender was not. The identified variables for professorship may be considered as factors in faculty promotions.
KW - clinical pain
KW - education
KW - pain medicine
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85087755313&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85087755313&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1136/rapm-2019-101139
DO - 10.1136/rapm-2019-101139
M3 - Article
C2 - 32561650
AN - SCOPUS:85087755313
SN - 1098-7339
VL - 45
SP - 589
EP - 596
JO - Regional anesthesia and pain medicine
JF - Regional anesthesia and pain medicine
IS - 8
ER -