Medical Student Research Activity in Otolaryngology

Objective: To investigate medical student research productivity by institutions associated with otolaryngology residency programs and identify correlates of productivity. Study Design: Retrospective review. Setting: N/A. Methods: A systematic search for articles indexed on PubMed published by 116 programs from January 1, 2016 to February 28, 2021 was conducted. Primary outcomes were number of faculty publications, first-author medical student publications and medical students from each institution. Secondary outcomes included geographic region, number of otolaryngology faculty members, and program rankings. Results: Nationally, the mean number of faculty per institution was 21.7 at the time of search. Over a 5-year period, there was a mean 98.7 total publications and 15.8 medical student first-author publications per institution consisting of a mean of 10.03 distinct medical students. One-way analysis of variance showed no statistically significant difference in medical student productivity (P =.09) or department size (P =.12) between regions. Number of medical student first-author publications positively correlated to number of faculty (R =.43, P <.05) and number of faculty publications (R =.63, P <.05). The top 30 programs ranked by United States News & World Report or National Institute of Health for funding had a statistically significantly greater mean number of medical student first-author publications and distinct medical student first authors than all other programs (P <.05). Conclusion: Greater numbers of faculty members likely provide more mentorship and opportunities that allow medical students to engage in projects that lead to first-author publications. These findings allow institutions to reflect on efforts in medical student engagement and provide data to students for career planning.