Abstract
Objectives Our objective was to elucidate the demographic, academic, and career attributes of
North American Skull Base Society (NASBS) presidents and determine how leadership
of this society has changed over time.
Design Thirty-one NASBS presidents have served between 1990 and 2021. Demographic and scholarly
variables were recorded from publicly available sources. To determine how trends in
NASBS presidents have changed over time, linear and logistic regressions were conducted
on continuous and categorical variables, respectively.
Setting Virtual setting was used for this study.
Participants There were no active participants in the study.
Main Outcome Measures Academic metrics of NASBS presidents were the main outcome measure.
Results NASBS presidents had a mean age of 53.3 ± 6.1 years at election and were all male.
The most common institution at which former presidents trained (n = 4) and practiced (n = 3) was the University of Pittsburgh. Otolaryngologists comprised 41.9% (n = 13) of the cohort, neurosurgeons made up 38.8% (n = 12), and the remaining 19.3% (n = 6) were from other specialties. NASBS presidents from neurosurgery (p = 0.033) and other specialties (p = 0.014) were more likely to hold the rank of chair compared with those from otolaryngology.
Over time, there has been a linear increase in years of research experience at the
time of election (p = 0.048). There remains a lack of diversity of gender and race.
Conclusion NASBS presidents have demonstrated increased research activity over time, favoring
long-term academic careers. Knowledge of these trends and attributes, which demonstrate
an increase in skull base literature, growth of the NASBS, and a need for increased
diversity in the field, is important for stewarding the future of the NASBS and promoting
equity.
Keywords
skull base - neurosurgery - otolaryngology - h-index - leadership