Impact of Fellowship Training on Research Productivity in Academic Ophthalmology

ObjectivesTo assess whether scholarly impact of academic ophthalmologists, as measured using the h-index, is affected by fellowship training status and to further characterize differences in productivity among the various subspecialties and by departmental rank.DesignA descriptive and correlational design was used. In total, 1440 academic ophthalmologists from 99 ophthalmology training programs were analyzed. The h-index data were obtained from the Scopus database. Faculty members were classified by academic rank and grouped into 10 categories based on fellowship training: anterior segment, corneal and external disease, glaucoma, uveitis and ocular immunology, vitreoretinal disease, ophthalmic plastic surgery, pediatric ophthalmology, neuro-ophthalmology, ophthalmic pathology, and “other.” A one-way analysis of variance or Student t test using Microsoft Excel and “R” statistical software were used for comparison of continuous variables, with significance set at p < 0.05.SettingsFaculty working in academic ophthalmology residency training programs in the United States whose information is stored in the American Medical Association’s Fellowship and Residency Electronic Interactive Database.ResultsFellowship-trained ophthalmologists had significantly higher research productivity, as measured using the h-index, than non–fellowship-trained ophthalmologists in this study (p < 0.0005). Academic ophthalmologists trained in vitreoretinal disease or ophthalmic pathology had the highest scholarly productivity compared with those in other ophthalmology subspecialties (p < 0.05). There was a significant increase in scholarly productivity with increasing academic rank from Assistant Professor to Professor (p < 0.05). A significant difference in productivity between fellowship-trained and non–fellowship-trained ophthalmologists existed individually only at the level of Assistant Professor (p < 0.0005).ConclusionAcademic ophthalmologists with fellowship training have significantly higher scholarly output than non–fellowship-trained ophthalmologists do, as measured using the h-index. Research productivity increases with departmental academic rank from Assistant Professor to Professor.