Geographic Location Markedly Affects Academic Productivity of Pediatric Orthopaedic Surgeons.

Introduction: Existing literature lacks clarity on how research output during orthopaedic training correlates with the later productivity of pediatric orthopaedic surgeons. This study aims to examine the academic productivity of pediatric orthopaedic surgeons at different career stages and its relation to geographic training location.

Methods: The 2023 to 2024 Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America directory was used to identify pediatric orthopaedic fellowship faculty. Training history, current institution, and publication data before residency, during residency, fellowship, and after fellowship were collected. Attending publication rates and H-indices were calculated. Multivariate linear regression assessed relationships between publication numbers at various stages and attending publication rate and H-index. A P value of <0.05 was considered significant. Geographical regions were compared for attending publications, rates, and H-indices.

Results: A total of 398 pediatric orthopaedic surgeons from 45 fellowship programs were identified. The average number of publications per faculty member was 58.0 ± 72.0, with an H-index of 14.5 ± 13.2. The average attending publication rate was 2.99 ± 3.30. Residency (P < 0.001) and fellowship (P < 0.001) publication numbers were markedly associated with higher attending publication rates. Residency in the northeast was markedly associated with higher total attending publications (P = 0.043), rates (P = 0.021), and H-indices (P = 0.001) compared with other regions.

Discussion/conclusion: This study shows a strong correlation between higher research output during residency and fellowship, especially in the Northeast, and increased academic productivity as an attending. These findings may affect academic hiring and emphasize the importance of selecting residency and fellowship programs for future research success.