Plastic Surgery Resident Origins: A Retrospective Study on the Leading Medical Schools Generating Integrated Residents

Many institutions offer varying levels of opportunities for student involvement in plastic and reconstructive surgery. This study examined key factors at medical schools that produce the highest number of integrated plastic surgery residents to help identify successful educational models and program characteristics. The top 100 doctor of medicine programs of the United States that produced the most integrated plastic surgery residents from 2019 to 2024 were analyzed to identify factors that predict program success, including successful candidates, including the presence of a home integrated plastic surgery program and/or research fellowship, medical school class size, number of associated faculty and residents, and medical school ranking. Programs with home integrated plastic surgery residency programs (1.8 versus 1.2 residents/y with no home program) and home plastic surgery research fellowships (2.3 versus 1.5 residents/y with no home program) produced significantly more residents per year than programs without these opportunities (P < 0.0001). The number of integrated plastic surgery resident spots per home program (R 2 = 0.20, P = 0.0001), the number of plastic surgery faculty associated with the medical school (R 2 = 0.22, P < 0.0001), average medical school class size (R 2 = 0.04, P = 0.047), and medical school ranking (R 2 = 0.25, P < 0.0001) were all correlated with a higher number of plastic surgery residents produced by the schools. This study identified several key factors of US medical schools as reliable predictors of success in producing integrated plastic surgery residents.