C a m p b e l l U n i v e r s i t y S c h o o l o f O s t e o p a t h i c M e d i c i n e

Discussions and Conclusions: Medical Specialty of Publications with DO Authorship

• The specialty with the most D.O. associated authorship was Oncology with 26 of the 116 articles. This demonstrates the shifting of the osteopathic physicians into more medically specialized and research oriented professionals.

• Prior to the implementation of a single GME accreditation system, 9727 (54%) of the 17,937 DOs were enrolled in ACGME Postdoctoral training programs.4 For successful completion of the program, many ACGME programs require scholarly activity.5

• A major limitation of this study is that only the Original Articles section from the NEJM and Original Contributions/Original Investigation sections from JAMA were examined.

• Future Studies could examine D.O. authorship in subspecialty journals, assess barriers and facilitators for D.O. research publications, as well as analyze the number of publication from D.O. authors enrolled in ACGME programs in comparison to the AOA programs.

Objective:• To determine the percentage of articles authored

by osteopathic physicians in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) and the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA), from 2006 to 2015, and to compare the area of medical specialty of those osteopathic physicians.

Methods:• Between 2005 to 2015 the Original Articles from NEJM and Original

Contributions/Original Investigations from JAMA were analyzed for author credentials. D.O. authorship was manually verified for all articles by an additional team member.

• A random sample of 210 articles from NEJM and 165 articles from JAMA, 10% of all articles, were reviewed for accuracy by another team member not involved in the original identification of the articles, authorship, and specialty.

References:1. 2015 Osteopathic Medical Profession Report. Chicago, IL: American

Osteopathic Association; 2015.2. 2007 Osteopathic Medical Profession Report. Chicago, IL: American

Osteopathic Association; 2007.3. Ashurst JV, Galuska M. Osteopathic Physicians on the Editorial Boards

of Major Medical Journals Over the Past 30 Years. J Am Osteopath Assoc 2016;116(2):92-95. doi: 10.7556/jaoa.2016.021.

4. 2014 Osteopathic Medical Profession Report. Chicago, IL: American Osteopathic Association; 2014.

5. Resident/Fellow Scholarly Activity. Chicago, IL: Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education; 2015.

Background:• Historically, osteopathic physicians have long been

associated with primary care. However, osteopathicphysicians in specialties has nearly doubled since1984.1-2

D.O.s in Practice by Medical Specialty

• Little research has been performed to evaluate the scholarly activity, which is often tied to specialty placement and academic rank progression, of osteopathic physicians. In a recent study by Ashurst and Galuska, the researchers revealed that although the number of editorial board positions increased from 1984 to 2014, a mere 3 positions of the 2058 available positions were occupied by osteopathic physicians.3

• With the recent ACGME merger and the creation of a single GME, the scholarly activity requirements are changing for residencies and fellowships. Thereby making scholarly activities, such as publication in high impact journals, vitally important for advancement within the profession as well as expansion of the profession.

66.30%

56.00%

23.70%

44.00%

1984 2015

Primary Care Specialist

Results:Osteopathic Physician Authorship Trends in NEJM and JAMA

• A total of 2095 articles were surveyed from the NEJM and 1614 articles from JAMA. NEJM: 77 (3.67%) of NEJM articles and 39 (2.42%) of JAMA articles were associated with DO authorship.

• DO first authorship was highest in JAMA with 6 (0.37%) articles and 3 (0.14%) articles in NEJM. DO senior authorship was equal at 1 article in each journal, 0.05% in NEJM and 0.12% in JAMA. 74 (3.53%) of the articles in NEJM had a DO co-author, while just 31 (1.92%) articles in JAMA had a DO co-author.

First Author Credentials of Articles with DO Co-Authorsa

a Data is given as N (%). - Denotes no articles published with DO authorship.

0.00%

1.00%

2.00%

3.00%

4.00%

5.00%

6.00%

7.00%

8.00%

9.00%

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

Perc

en

t o

f A

rtic

les

Year

JAMA

NEJM

Credentials JAMA NEJM Overall

DO 3 (7.69%) 3 (3.90%) 6 (5.17%)

DO with Master’s Degree 2 (5.13%) - 2 (1.72%)

DO with PhD 1 (2.56%) - 1 (0.86%)

MD 12 (30.77%) 59 (76.62%) 71 (61.21%)

MD with Master’s Degree 6 (15.38%) 4 (5.19%) 10 (8.62%)

MD with PhD 4 (10.26%) 7 (9.09%) 11 (9.48%)

PhD 8 (20.51%) 2 (2.60%) 10 (8.62%)

PhD with Master’s Degree 2 (5.13%) 1 (1.30%) 3 (2.59%)

Master’s Degree 1 (2.56%) 1 (1.30%) 2 (1.72%)

22%

10%

9%

8%8% 6% 5% 5%

27%

Oncology Obstetrics and Gynecology CardiologyInfectious Disease Internal Medicine PulmonaryEmergency Medicine Family Medicine Other Specialties

Osteopathic Physician Authorship Trends in NEJM and JAMA from 2006 to 2015Riaz Mahmood, M.S., OMS-II; Paul Nguyen, OMS-II; and Charles J. Smutny III, D.O.

Campbell University School of Osteopathic Medicine