Introduction: Variation between academic quality of American College of Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) and non-ACGME accredited adult reconstruction fellowship programs has not been previously examined. The purpose of this study is to compare ACGME and non-ACGME-accredited adult reconstruction fellowship programs’ degree of diversity and academic contribution by evaluating program directors’ diversity, academic impact, and contribution to the field of arthroplasty.

Materials and Methods: We utilized the American Academy of Hip and Knee Surgeons Fellowship Directory to ascertain all fellowship directors and the ACGME Public Accreditation Data System to identify accreditation status. Demographic data included ethnicity, gender, and prior training institution. Academic data was obtained through the National Institute of Health iCITE and Scopus databases. We stratified fellowship directors by ACGME accreditation status.

Results: Compared to non-ACGME accredited fellowship directors, ACGME accredited adult reconstruction fellowship directors have significantly greater average h-index score (h-index=22.9 versus14.8, P<0.01), relative citation ratio (RCR=134.3 versus 69.4, P<0.01) and number of publications on both Scopus and iCITE databases (Scopus publications =87.7 versus 49.8, P<0.01), and iCITE publications =73.2 versus 40.2, P<0.01). Compared to non-ACGME-accredited fellowship directors, fellowship directors of programs with ACGME accreditation depict a decreased percentage of Caucasian representation (82.8 versus 68.2%), an increase in Asian American (11.8 versus 22.6%), Hispanic/Latino (3.2 versus 4.5%), and African American (2.2 versus 4.5%) representation.

Discussion: Adult reconstruction programs with ACGME accreditation are led by fellowship directors who are more diverse and have significantly greater academic contribution and impact compared to directors of non-ACGME accredited programs.

Adult reconstruction fellowship, Fellowship program director, Academic productivity