Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons(SAGES)statement on the relationship between professional medical associations and industry.

INTRODUCTION

Surgical societies, including SAGES, distribute grant funds to support research, as well as to promote recipient careers. Although we hypothesize that these awards have a positive impact, no objective evidence exists. We sought to benchmark the scientific productivity of the grants, the academic success of the recipients, and the generation of further research projects.

METHODS

All SAGES grant principle investigators (PI) and co-PIs were surveyed using Survey Monkey™. Questions included resultant presentations/publications, ensuing funding, academic promotion, further research initiatives, and opinions on grant impact. A Medline query of all grant recipients was used to verify and supplement this data.

RESULTS

48 of 108 recipients (44%) responded to the survey, with 81% of respondents listed as the PI. The majority of the funded studies (73%) were accepted for presentation at a national meeting, with 89% presented at SAGES and 9% receiving various meeting awards. Grant recipients attended 3.8 of the last 5 SAGES meetings. Respondents also reported a 64% rate of publication, with the majority published in (68%). Of recipients, 84% had at least one publication identified by a Medline search, with an average of 32 papers since grant completion. Among the awardees, 43% received further research funding, most frequently (43%) from a professional organization and occasionally (7%) from the National Institutes of Health. The amount of extramural funding received was greater than US $50,000 for 67% of the awardees, with half of those receiving more than US $200,000.

CONCLUSION

SAGES grants have a strong impact on recipient academic careers. Future funding, society activism, and publication are favorably influenced by these grants. SAGES should continue to support research with this successful mechanism as a necessary tool for the academic growth of recipients and development of research deemed important by SAGES.