Examining the H-index of Presidents of International Vascular and Venous Societies

Objective North American and European vascular and venous societies are composed of a diverse array of individuals from many countries spanning the globe. Presidents of these societies help influence the priorities, policies, and research directions of vascular and venous medicine. This study aims to compare academic output through the H-index, or Hirsch index, a metric used to evaluate the impact and productivity of a researcher's work. Methods Age, sex, country of origin, ethnicity, and race, as classified by US census designations, were determined using multiple online sources. The year of ascendancy to the presidency and the year of birth were used to calculate age. H-indices were collected as a measure of academic impact. Statistical significance was assessed using Student's t-test, with p < 0.05 indicating significance. Results We collected demographic data for 558 presidents across 11 vascular societies (SVS, VESS, SCVS, EVS, WVS, SAVS, MVSS, NESVS, CSVS, SVM, ESVS) and 4 venous societies (AVF, AVLS, EVF, UIP) from North America and Europe. The average H-index varied across societies, with SVM presidents having the highest (59.5 SD=35.9) and CSVS having the lowest (15.5 SD=11.1). Presidents from venous societies had lower average H-indices than their vascular counterparts (31.9 vs. 38.8, p < 0.028). Conclusions Our data show wide variability among age and H-indices. We observed temporal differences across time in H-index, which may reflect leadership characteristics across the different societies.