At the Core of Global Neurosurgery: A Survey of the Medical Student Impact on the Field

Introduction: Academic medicine has a history of investing in pathways for medical students to gain funded research experience. As a burgeoning field, global neurosurgery should receive similar treatment. Despite an explosion of global neurosurgery-related articles published in recent years, there is a lack of formal opportunities and literature documenting the tangible academic impact students have made. This study highlights the importance of students in global neurosurgery research, calling for more student-specific programmatic and funding opportunities.

Methods: An anonymized survey, via Google Forms, was distributed to US medical institutions that had formal or informal global neurosurgery labs. Individuals who had taken part in global neurosurgery research within the past ten years as medical students, despite their current status, were eligible to complete the survey.

Results: 30 respondents (56.7% male; 76.7% medical students and 16.7% residents; 60% first-generation Americans) completed the survey. 78.2% of students that took an additional year for research, were financed by loans and personal funds. 45.6% felt that their institution benefitted from their global neurosurgery endeavors through publicity and research. 40.0% had 1 to 5 first-author publications, with 66.7% of these papers published in a neurosurgery journal. 69.0% had presented at a conference, with 80.0% being poster and 55.0% being oral presentations. Regarding their roles within research, 96.4% participated in manuscript writing, 92.9% participated in data collection, 82.1% participated in proofreading, and 75% took part in project design.

Conclusion : Medical students in the study produced publications and received conference presentations at a similar frequency as those who matched into neurosurgery in 2024. Additionally, this study has defined a concrete role for students within global neurosurgery research and the essentiality of it. The results qualify the call for a greater amount of funded research opportunities for students within the field.