Factors Associated with Future Academic Faculty Appointment After Spine Surgery Fellowship Training.

Background context: Understanding optimal training environments for future academic leaders is a topic of increasing interest in spine surgery.

Purpose: This study determined the association between surgeon factors and future academic faculty appointment after spine surgery fellowship training.

Study design/setting: This was a retrospective observational study of spine surgery fellows in the United States (2016-2017 to 2022-2023).

Patient sample: N/A OUTCOME MEASURES: The primary outcome of interest was future academic faculty appointment, which was assigned if the spine surgeon was employed at a teaching hospital. Demographic, bibliometric, and training characteristics of spine surgery fellows were obtained.

Methods: Bivariate analyses were performed to determine the association between surgeon factors and future academic faculty appointment.

Results: There were 654 spine surgery fellows and 243 were appointed to academic faculty positions (37.2%). There was no difference in the rate of future academic faculty appointment between male and female spine surgeons (36.7% vs 45.7%, P=0.368). Allopathic graduates were more likely to obtain academic faculty positions than osteopathic graduates (40.6% vs 12.5%, P<0.001). Compared to spine surgeons in private practice, spine surgeons in academic practice had more peer-reviewed publications during medical school (1 ± 3 vs 0 ± 2, P<0.001) and orthopaedic surgery residency training (5 ± 13 vs 3 ± 5, P<0.001). Several characteristics of spine surgery fellowship programs were associated with future academic faculty appointment including geographic region (P=0.013), Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) accreditation status (P<0.001), and a greater volume of annual fellows (P=0.003).

Conclusions: Several factors were associated with future academic faculty appointment in spine surgery including higher scholarly output during medical school and orthopaedic residency. These data may ultimately help trainees and fellowship selection committees in spine surgery align on desired academic career objectives.