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INTRODUCTION: External funding is fundamental to surgeon-scientists and many Society of Asian Academic Surgeons (SAAS) members have received funding through National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants. The amount of funding through NIH awards amongst SAAS members has yet to be evaluated. Our objective was to quantify the amount and type of NIH funding among SAAS members. METHODS: A list of all active SAAS members was compiled. The NIH Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tool's Expenditure and Results was queried to identify NIH funding among active members. RESULTS: Among 585 active SAAS members, 165 (28%) received NIH funding during their career. Of these, 110 members (66.6%) were male and 55 members (33.3%) were female. A total of 420 NIH grants have been awarded totaling $518.7 million in funding. There are currently 47 active grants totaling $34.1 million in funding. When analyzing by type, there were 226 R research grants, 63 K career development awards, 53 T and F research training and fellowships awards, and 78 other awards. Of the 63 members who received a K award, 35 members (55%) have subsequently received an R award. CONCLUSIONS: SAAS members are highly funded with 28% of members having received NIH funding totaling $518.7 million. SAAS' mission is to foster the personal and professional development of academic surgeons and we found that many SAAS members have the experience to mentor other surgeon-scientists through the process of obtaining NIH funding. Participation in organizations like SAAS can help nurture the success of future generations of surgeon-scientists.
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BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Promotion and tenure are important milestones for academic surgical oncologists. The aim of this study was to quantify academic metrics associated with rank in surgical oncologists training the next generation. METHODS: Faculty were identified from accredited surgical oncology fellowships in the United States. Scopus was used to obtain the number of publications/citations and h-index values. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) RePORT website was used to identify funding history. RESULTS: Of the 319 surgeons identified, complete rank information was obtained for 308. The majority of faculty were men (70%) and only 11% of full professors were women. The median h-index values were 7, 17, and 39 for assistant, associate, and full professors, respectively. While 50% of full professors had a history of NIH funding, only 26% had RO1s and 20% had current NIH funding. Using multivariate analysis, years in practice, h-index, and a history of NIH funding were associated with academic rank (P < .05). CONCLUSION: Objective benchmarks, such as the median h-index and NIH funding, provide additional insights for both junior faculty and leadership into the productivity needed to attain promotion to the next academic rank for surgical oncologists.