• Adham M Khalafallah, Adrian E Jimenez, and Debraj Mukherjee.
• Department of Neurosurgery, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 1800 Orleans Street, Baltimore, MD, 21287, USA.
• J Cancer Educ. 2020 Jul 19.

AbstractMuch research has been conducted to investigate predictors of an academic career trajectory among neurosurgeons in general. This study seeks to examine a cohort of fellowship-trained neurosurgical oncologists to determine which factors are associated with a career in academia. Publicly available data on fellowship-trained neurosurgical oncologists was aggregated from ACGME-accredited residency websites, from program websites listed on the AANS Neurosurgical Fellowship Training Program Directory, and from professional websites including Doximity. Bivariate analyses were conducted to determine covariates for a logistic regression model, and a multivariate analysis was conducted to determine which variables were independently associated with an academic career trajectory. A total of 87 neurosurgical oncologists were identified (1991-2018). A total of 73 (83.9%) had > 1 year of protected research time in residency, 33 (37.9%) had an h-index of ≥2 prior to residency, and 63 (72.4%) had an h-index of ≥2 during residency. In multivariate analysis, the only factor independently associated with academic career trajectory among neurosurgical oncologists was achieving an h-index of ≥2 during residency (odds ratio [OR] = 2.93, p = .041). Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center graduated the most neurosurgical oncologists in our cohort (n = 23). Our study establishes a novel factor that is predictive of academic career trajectory among fellowship-trained neurosurgical oncologists, specifically having an h-index of ≥2 during residency. Our results may be useful for those mentoring students and trainees with an interest in pursuing academia.

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