MOBILE, Ala. – Medical students from the Frederick P. Whiddon College of Medicine at the University of South Alabama led a research study evaluating academic productivity and match outcomes of neurosurgery residents from medical schools without a neurosurgery residency program.

The research study was published in the Journal of Neurosurgery, the scholarly journal of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons and the most referenced neurosurgery-specific publication in the country.

The research found that medical students at institutions without a home neurosurgery residency program, or those with smaller departments, may encounter distinct challenges in producing research and could face a disadvantage in the neurosurgery match. Medical students interested in neurosurgery, particularly those attending medical schools without a dedicated neurosurgery residency program, often face limitations in terms of available projects, resources and research support.

“It is well established that research plays a significant role in determining who is selected for a neurosurgery residency position. However, access to research opportunities and support varies among institutions, which in turn affects students,” said Garrett Dyess, a medical student at the Whiddon College of Medicine and first author of the research study. “Our study aimed to evaluate the quantity, quality, and changes over time in research papers produced by medical students from schools without a neurosurgery residency program.”

The transition of the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) Step 1 to a pass/fail structure in 2022 sparked the interest of this study, as the new Step 1 scaling focuses attention on medical student research in their residency application. Step 1 assesses medical students’ knowledge of basic science concepts and their application to clinical medicine. The exam is one of three components required for medical licensure in the United States and is typically taken by students after their second year of medical school.

It is reported that the criteria by which applicants are screened following the Step 1 reporting system has changed. While preferences for qualities are different between programs, previous research demonstrated the importance highly ranked programs put on prospects having significantly more pre-residency publications than their peers. Medical students aiming for neurosurgery programs are increasingly publishing papers, leading to higher bibliometric values each year.

Prior research studies have largely aimed at quantifying the research of medical student neurosurgery applicants, focusing on the number of peer-reviewed publications and their relation to successful residency matches and match ranks. However, no previous research has characterized the factors leading to matching in neurosurgery for applicants from medical schools without a home neurosurgical training program.

The study compiled a list of neurosurgery residents who matched from 2016 to 2022 from schools lacking a neurosurgery program, along with their demographic and bibliometric data, and compared publication counts by applicant. In addition, residency programs were ranked by research productivity and divided into top 40 and non-top 40.

Residents matched between 2016 and 2022 attended 52 medical schools lacking a neurosurgery residency program. The most common scenario found was one resident matched per institution. Notably, 45.1% of medical schools lacking a residency program had only one successful match in neurosurgery during this period.

“We hope this work will serve as a valuable reference for both students and neurosurgery residency program leaders, enabling a more accurate assessment of these students’ research efforts when they are being evaluated for neurosurgery residency positions in the future,” Dyess said.

See USA Health’s full research study published by the Journal of Neurosurgery at thejns.org.

Conception and design of the research study was led by Richard Menger, M.D., chief of complex spine surgery, associate professor of neurosurgery, and vice chair of neurosurgery at USA Health; with help from Sudhir Suggala, M.D., complex spine and spinal deformity fellow in USA Health’s Department of Neurosurgery.

Other contributors to the research include Garrett Dyess, Danner Butler, Stridhar Karne and Maxon Bassett, medical students at the Whiddon College of Medicine; Luke Harris, a neurosurgery resident at the University of Mississippi Medical Center; Zackary Sabetta and Michael Rallo, PhD, MD/PhD students at Robert Wood Johnson University; and Susan Broom Gibson, associate professor of psychology at William Carey University.