Residency-Affiliated Academic Neurosurgeons (RAAN): A Cross-Sectional Analysis of Neurosurgery Residency Program Rankings

Background: Existing neurosurgery residency rankings do not assess programs based on graduate placement in academic faculty positions. We sought to develop a novel ranking system of neurosurgery programs to identify programs that produced academic faculty and evaluated these programs relative to established ranking systems. This novel ranking system, the Residency Affiliated Academic Neurosurgeons, was compared to the Doximity Residency Navigator, and Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research. Methods: We evaluated neurosurgeons with positions in Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education neurosurgery programs. We looked at those programs websites and faculty under neurosurgery. Certain programs were excluded based on the data not being publicly available. We analyzed the relationship between Residency Affiliated Academic Neurosurgeons with Doximity Residency Navigator and Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research. We analyzed the median rank of the ranking system per program and the percentage of legacy faculty. Results: We included 1623 faculty members in our analysis. This novel ranking system was evaluated against Doximity Residency Navigator and Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research, revealing strong correlations (r=0.73, p<0.0001, r=0.45, p<0.001, respectively). Notably, the percentage of legacy faculty (defined as faculty who are appointed at the same location as residency training) had a significant association with Residency Affiliated Academic Neurosurgeons and Doximity Residency Navigator (r=-0.33, p<0.05 and r=-0.38, p<0.001, respectively). Conclusion: We developed a ranking of neurosurgery programs based on the placement of graduates in academic positions. RAAN rankings align with existing systems and provide an objective measure of residency program effectiveness in producing academic neurosurgeons.