Factors Affecting the Pursuit of Academic Careers Among Dermatology Residents
There is a shortage of academic dermatologists in the United States. This study aimed to examine characteristics of US dermatology residency programs that affect the odds of producing academic dermatologists. Data regarding program size, faculty, grants, alumni residency program attended, lectures, and publications for all accredited US dermatology residency programs were collected; these data were correlated with the ratio of graduating full-time faculty members to estimated total number of graduates for each respective program. Results emphasize that the ratio of faculty to residents and the number of full-time faculty publications may represent key factors by which residency programs can increase their graduation of academic dermatologists.
Practice Points
- Because of the shortage of academic dermatologists, dermatology residency programs may wish to create an environment that will produce residents who are more likely to pursue careers in academia.
- Dermatology residency programs with more faculty members may encourage residents to enter careers in academia following graduation.
Ranking Individual Programs With the Highest Number of Graduates Pursuing Academic Careers
The top 5 dermatology residency programs with the highest ratio of full-time faculty members graduated to the estimated total number of graduates were Brown University (Providence, Rhode Island), Loyola University (Chicago, Illinois), UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School at Camden (Camden, New Jersey), Harvard University (Cambridge, Massachusetts), and the University of Vermont (Burlington, Vermont)(Table 2). If faculty members spent time at more than one residency program, they were given credit for time spent at each program. For this reason, not all numbers are integers.
Ranking Individual Programs With the Highest Number of Full-time Faculty Members Who Completed Residency at the Same Institution
The top 10 institutions with the highest percentage of full-time faculty members who completed their residency at the same institution are shown in Table 3. Most of the programs with higher percentages are small programs. Fourteen programs had no faculty members who completed residency at the same program (data not shown).
