History of the Southern Thoracic Surgical Association President's Award for Best Scientific Paper.

The President's Award for best scientific paper is presented to esteemed members at each Southern Thoracic Surgical Association annual meeting to stimulate friendly scientific competition. Between 1964 and 2015, 58 awards were presented for clinical expertise in general thoracic surgery (18), adult cardiac surgery (25), and congenital heart surgery (15). Manuscripts were published by The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, and the average number of subsequent citations in professional medical journals as a measure of scientific importance was 43.7 ± 60.2. A seemingly prosaic addition of a yearly scientific award has had an enormous impact on the scientific community and membership participation.