2025 Poster Presentations
P427: WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BE A NASBS PRESIDENT: A CROSS SECTIONAL STUDY OF ATTRIBUTES AND ACADEMIC HISTORY OF PRESIDENTS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN SKULL BASE SOCIETY
Danner W Butler; Mehdi Khaleghi; Adnan Shahid; Garrett Dyess; John Citrin; Maxon Bassett; Jai D Thakur; University of South Alabama
Intro/Objective: Becoming president of NASBS comes with tremendous dedication and contribution towards the field. No previous study has defined this path and associated portfolio. Our study focuses on the academic achievements and characteristics of past, current, and future elected North American Skull Base Society (NASBS) presidents since its inception in 1990.
Methods: A total of 35 NASBS presidents were identified for data collection with demographics and attributes collected from a list of publicly available sources. Student t-tests and chi squared tests were used for statistical analysis.
Results: Of all presidents from the inception 35/36 (97.2%) were male. 11/25 (30.6%) were international medical graduates (IMGs) who completed either their residency or medical school in their home countries. The mean years of practice was 20.2 ± 5.7 years (range: 8-34 years), and all the presidents worked in academic institutions. Only 4 out of 36 (11.1%) presidents had worked in a private setting. The most common subspecialty was skull base neurosurgery (15/36, 41.6%) followed by otolaryngology (14/36, 38.8%). Among these, 4/14 (28.6%) of otolaryngologist and 4/15 (26.7%) of skull base neurosurgeons were IMGs, with no significant difference in the rates between two groups (p= 0.91). There was no significant difference in the mean years of practice between otolaryngologists and skull base neurosurgeons (20.6 ± 6.1 vs. 20.4 ± 5 years, respectively, p= 0.88). 5 out of 36 (13.9%) presidents had NIH funding. The most common states of practice were New York (5/36, 13.9%) and Massachusetts (4/36, 11.1%), followed by Florida (3/36, 8.3%) and California (3/36, 8.3%).
Conclusion: Analysis of academic characteristics of past NASBS presidents serves as a useful resource for practicing physicians within the field early in their career. An association appears to exist between academic careers with greater than 20 years of research and election to the NASBS president position. NASBS provides one of the largest inclusive diversities in electing presidents irrespective of country of origin.