The state of educational research in cardiothoracic surgery: A review of the literature.

Objective: Evolving training paradigms in cardiothoracic surgery (CTS) are changing the educational needs of integrated residents and traditional fellows. Educational research is important for evaluating specialty training. This study assessed CTS education articles to analyze their prevalence, content, and reach. Methods: In a cross-sectional observational study of education articles published on North American CTS programs from January 2013 through December 2023, articles were identified by querying PubMed, other databases, and journals. Articles that passed an initial abstract review underwent full-text review. Articles were organized by content into 9 categories: curriculum, simulation, trainee assessment, program evaluation, wellness/burnout, diversity/inclusion, mentorship/career, outcomes, and trainee perceptions. Data were analyzed with univariate statistics and the Mann-Kendall test. Results: A total of 124 CTS education articles from 20 journals were identified, comprising 0.15% of the 84,005 articles published across these journals. The greatest volume of articles came from Annals of Thoracic Surgery (41%) and Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery (26%). PlumX metrics revealed that each article had a median of 11 interaction citations (interquartile range, 6.0-22.0; n = 113) and 23 captures (interquartile range, 11-47; n = 101). Common topics were curriculum (n = 39, 32%) and simulation training (n = 19, 15%). Manuscripts with ≥11 citations had greater PlumX metrics (P < .001). The annual CTS publication volume of educational articles averaged 11.3 ± 4.0; excluding pandemic years, this volume showed no significant increase from 2013-2019 to 2023 (P = .80). Conclusions: Approximately 10 articles per year are published on CTS education and training. Increased efforts in the CTS community are needed to encourage and disseminate education research.