Abstract
Academic surgeons provide tremendous value to institutions including notoriety, publicity, cutting-edge clinical advances, extramural funding, and academic growth and development. In turn, these attributes may result in improved reputation scores and hospital or medical center rankings. While many hospital systems, schools of medicine, and departments of surgery claim to have a major commitment to academic surgery and research, academic surgeons are often undercompensated compared to clinically focused counterparts. Existing salary benchmarks (e.g., the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) or the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC)) are often used but are imperfect. Thus, the value proposition for academic surgeons goes beyond compensation and often includes protected time for academic pursuit, nonsalary financial support, and other intangible benefits to being associated with a major academic center (e.g., abundance of scientific collaborators, infrastructure for grant management). As a result, institution-specific practices have developed and academic surgeons are left to negotiate salary support including bonus structures, protected time, and recruitment packages on a case-by-case basis without a clear roadmap. A diverse panel representing a range of academic surgical experiences was convened at the 2022 Academic Surgical Congress to illuminate this complex, often stress-inducing, aspect of an academic surgeon's professional career.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | A1-A6 |
| Journal | Journal of Surgical Research |
| Volume | 285 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - May 2023 |
Funding
There was no direct funding for this manuscript. Author AJR is supported on a training grant by the National Cancer Institute. Surgical Multispecialty Access to Research in Residency Training (SMART) training grant [R38 CA245095]. Despite success in procuring extramural funding as a surgeon-scientist, you will still need departmental support due to the salary cap from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). 19 Effective January 2, 2022, the salary cap from the NIH is $203,700 a year. When calculating percentage of time spent on research, the calculation is based on a $203,700 yearly salary. 19 Surgeons make significantly more than this figure as annual salary. This results in a gap in funding. e.g., if a surgeon makes $400,000 a year and spends 50% time doing research, then $200,000 of research funding is needed to fully compensate this surgeon. With one R01 grant and 50% research time, the salary support from the grant will be approximately $100,000, leaving a gap of approximately $100,000. During negotiations, ask how the department handles gap funding. Salary support for research endeavors represents the most complex and institution-specific aspect of an academic surgeon's portfolio. During surgical training, aspiring academic surgeons are often encouraged to partake in dedicated research years to build a foundation in understanding the scientific process. 15 , 16 Research years not only strengthen trainees' skills in study design and execution, but also may provide experience with grant writing and procuring extramural funding. 15 , 16 Obtaining extramural grant funding as a trainee may lead to success later in their career as an academic surgeon. 15 Despite gaining exposure to mentors with extramural funding, or experience with garnering their own extramural funding, trainees still may not understand all the nuances that come along with research packages when applying for their first academic position. While extramural grant funding represents the goal, institutional investment and support in the research enterprise is critical for both early career and long-term success. On rare occasion, institutions may provide incentives and bonuses based on the amount of extramural funding obtained. 17 Department support for research begins in the form of a “start-up” package, often assembled during recruitment. Start-up packages are not only for new academic surgeons, but for any academic surgeon who is moving jobs, even if they bring extramural funding with them from their previous position.
Keywords
- Academic surgeon
- Compensation
- Negotiation
- Research packages
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Surgery