(F-237) Characterizing Research Productivity at a New Medical School Designed with the Intersection of Engineering and Medicine– A 5-Year Review

Introduction:: The Carle Illinois College of Medicine is the first college of medicine designed with the intersection of engineering and medicine. The College was launched in 2017 with the first cohort of physician innovators graduating in May of 2022. Carle Illinois serves a developing area of medical advancement: training Physician Innovators with a new, unique approach to medical education with engineering, and innovation integration. As such, there has been rapid growth in novel research coming from our institution in the last 5 years. The goal of this study is to conduct a comprehensive review of all scientific literature published by affiliates (faculty, staff, and students) of Carle Illinois since its inception to appreciate the largest areas of development and determine trends for future work such that resources can be appropriately provided to these areas.


Materials and Methods:: A systematic review of the literature published at Carle Illinois was conducted following the PRISMA Guidelines. 937 records were obtained from PUBMED/MEDLINE index search for manuscripts published with an affiliation of Carle Illinois or a combined affiliation with University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Carle Foundation Hospital. The 712 remaining records after assessing inclusion criteria were then manually categorized into the most closely related medical specialty area according to the AAMC’s (Association of Medical College) listing of general medical specialties [1], and the most closely affiliated proposed research theme from the Office of Research and Innovation at Carle Illinois (4 categories: clinical, translational, medical education, and other). These categories were then statistically analyzed using DIVA (Diversity Average) to determine which categorization distributes the existing research from Carle Illinois optimally.


Results, Conclusions, and Discussions:: When categorized by Clinical Subspecialty, 94.7% of all research was successfully categorized. Areas with the most expansive growth in the first 5 years included Infection, Microbiology, & Immunology (32.3%), Neurosciences (11.4%), and Surgery (13.5%). When categorized by the Proposed Research Themes, 58.99% of all research was categorized as clinical, 34.27% translational, 3.51% medical education, and 3.23% some other categorization. Based on the DIVA Analysis at ⍺ = 0.05, the data is significantly more diversely categorized by Clinical Subspecialties than Proposed Research Themes. The primary categorization of student research was altered to mirror the AAMC’s listing for Clinical Subspecialties to better distribute resources to areas of active growth in research at Carle Illinois. In conclusion, publications can be continually systematically reviewed, automatically updated for media, and can serve as a quantitative source for the college to identify areas for expansion of resources.


Acknowledgements (Optional): : We would like to acknowledge the researchers at the Carle Illinois College of Medicine, and particularly the research staff at the Stephens Family Research Institute at Carle Foundation Hospital for making this study possible.


References (Optional): : [1] AAMC. Specialty profiles. Careers in Medicine. https://careersinmedicine.aamc.org/explore-options/specialty-profiles. Published 2023. Accessed April 11, 2023.