Factors affecting interest in cardiothoracic surgery: Survey of North American general surgery residents  Ara A. Vaporciyan, MD, Carolyn E. Reed, MD, Clese Erikson, MPAff, Michael J. Dill, MPP, Andrea J. Carpenter, MD, Kristine J. Guleserian, MD, Walter Merrill, MD  The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery  Volume 137, Issue 5, Pages 1054-1062 (May 2009) DOI: 10.1016/j.jtcvs.2009.03.044 Copyright © 2009 The American Association for Thoracic Surgery and The Society of Thoracic Surgeons Terms and Conditions

Figure 1 The percentage of male and female respondents in each category of interest in cardiothoracic surgery. The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery 2009 137, 1054-1062DOI: (10.1016/j.jtcvs.2009.03.044) Copyright © 2009 The American Association for Thoracic Surgery and The Society of Thoracic Surgeons Terms and Conditions

Figure 2 This 100% stacked column graph illustrates the rapid decline in residents who are undecided but interested in cardiothoracic surgery (CTS) after their third year of clinical training. It also illustrates that many of the residents who are committed to CTS do so between their second and fourth year of training. The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery 2009 137, 1054-1062DOI: (10.1016/j.jtcvs.2009.03.044) Copyright © 2009 The American Association for Thoracic Surgery and The Society of Thoracic Surgeons Terms and Conditions

Figure 3 This question asked respondents to choose the dimension of cardiothoracic surgery (CTS) that they found most appealing. The respondents committed to CTS included the respondents who indicated that they had already chosen CTS as their career (N = 110, missing data on 10 respondents). The group respondents not choosing CTS included respondents who were not committed to CTS irrespective of their interest in CTS (N = 1342, missing data on 701 respondents). The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery 2009 137, 1054-1062DOI: (10.1016/j.jtcvs.2009.03.044) Copyright © 2009 The American Association for Thoracic Surgery and The Society of Thoracic Surgeons Terms and Conditions

Figure 4 The percentage of respondents committed to cardiothoracic surgery (CTS) was plotted according to the length of their CTS rotations. In addition, the percentage of respondents who strongly agreed that their CTS rotation was a positive experience, that CTS faculty acted as a role model, or that CTS faculty took an interest in their career was also plotted according to the length of their CTS rotations. In each of these variables, a strong correlation was identified with increasing length of their CTS rotations. The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery 2009 137, 1054-1062DOI: (10.1016/j.jtcvs.2009.03.044) Copyright © 2009 The American Association for Thoracic Surgery and The Society of Thoracic Surgeons Terms and Conditions