"Academic Ranking Score": A New Reproducible Metric of Thought Leadership
Alexander Kutikov*, Boris Rozenfeld*, Brian L. Egleston ^, Mohit Sirohi*, Raymond W. Hwang #, and Robert G. Uzzo*
* - Division of Urologic Oncology, Department of Surgical Oncology,
Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA
# - Department of Orthopedic Surgery, New England Baptist Hospital, Boston,
MA
^ - Department of Biostatistics, Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA
|
Background: In a 2010 article by Sehgal in the Annals of Internal Medicine,1 the process of the U.S. News and World Report (USNWR) rankings was deconstructed and analyzed. Perhaps the biggest concern is that the USNWR relies heavily on 'reputation score'. This is particularly true in urology where 100% of top 10 hospitals and 95% of top 20 hospitals were classified identically by the reputation score and by the overall ranking.1 The reputation score is based on a non-validated questionnaire sent to approximately 250 urologists. The response rate is only 40-50%, meaning the urology rank in USNWR is nearly completely based on the opinion of 100-125 urologists.1 A primary reason for this is the magazine's need for 'face validity' - that is the rank list has to be 'believable' to potential readers.2, 3 In an effort to develop a more meaningful and reproducible measure of a urology department/division's contribution to the field, we calculated the “Academic Ranking Score" based entirely on publically available data. |
| Academic Ranking Score: A comprehensive faculty list was assembled for each urology department/division using individual hospital websites. A list of all publications produced by each hospital's urology department/division from 2005 to 2010 was then compiled. Only publications with faculty as first or last author were considered. The Academic Ranking Score was obtained by identifying the number of publications originating from a specific department/division within an institution, normalized by the Impact FactorTM of the peer-reviewed journal. The 2010 U.S. News & World Report top-fifty urology hospitals were then re-ranked based on an institution's Academic Ranking Score (Table 1). |
|
"Academic
Ranking" |
“Academic
Ranking” Normalized by FTE |
US
News & World Report Ranking
2010 |
Change
in Ranking |
Institution |
Number
of Publications Adjusted by Impact FactorTM |
|
1 |
1 |
8 |
7 |
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center |
2055.154 |
|
2 |
14 |
2 |
0 |
Cleveland Clinic |
1214.559 |
|
3 |
2 |
15 |
12 |
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center |
1204.921 |
|
4 |
11 |
11 |
7 |
University of Michigan Hospitals and Health Centers |
1183.854 |
|
5 |
13 |
4 |
-1 |
Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center |
1167.714 |
|
6 |
3 |
6* |
N/A* |
|
1128.542 |
|
7 |
4 |
5 |
-2 |
University of California, San Francisco |
1034.897 |
|
8 |
5 |
7 |
-1 |
Duke University Medical Center |
959.715 |
|
9 |
12 |
26 |
17 |
Northwestern Memorial Hospital |
877.208 |
|
10 |
6 |
10 |
0 |
University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center |
827.655 |
|
11 |
7 |
1 |
-10 |
Johns Hopkins Hospital |
795.633 |
|
12 |
10 |
9 |
-3 |
Vanderbilt University Medical Center |
654.082 |
|
13 |
15 |
3 |
-10 |
Mayo Clinic, Rochester |
622.688 |
|
14 |
8 |
16 |
2 |
USC University Hospital |
617.344 |
|
15 |
17 |
17 |
2 |
Barnes-Jewish Hospital/Washington University |
513.64 |
|
16 |
18 |
6* |
N/A* |
|
433.947 |
|
17 |
26 |
12 |
-5 |
Massachusetts General Hospital |
408.22 |
|
18 |
34 |
23 |
5 |
NYU Langone Medical Center |
389.835 |
|
19 |
9 |
28 |
9 |
University of Chicago Medical Center |
375.953 |
|
20 |
27 |
30 |
10 |
University of Washington Medical Center |
365.847 |
|
21 |
20 |
25 |
4 |
Shands at the University of Florida |
333.072 |
|
22 |
23 |
34 |
12 |
Henry Ford Hospital |
286.151 |
|
23 |
28 |
32 |
9 |
University of California, Irvine Medical Center |
274.631 |
|
24 |
19 |
40 |
16 |
University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics |
267.214 |
|
25 |
42 |
39 |
14 |
St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital |
262.209 |
|
26 |
25 |
18 |
-8 |
Methodist Hospital |
222.864 |
|
27 |
33 |
46 |
19 |
Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center |
215.96 |
|
28 |
21 |
21 |
-7 |
Brigham and Women's Hospital |
212.56 |
|
29 |
35 |
48 |
19 |
Memorial Hermann - Texas Medical Center |
204.324 |
|
30 |
16 |
N/A |
N/A |
202.12 |
|
|
31 |
24 |
22 |
-9 |
Stanford Hospital and Clinics |
199.725 |
|
32 |
29 |
13 |
-19 |
Clarian Health |
194.623 |
|
33 |
30 |
19 |
-14 |
University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics |
192.585 |
|
34 |
38 |
20 |
-14 |
UPMC - University of Pittsburgh Medical Center |
187.639 |
|
35 |
22 |
31 |
-4 |
University of Virginia Medical Center |
176.647 |
|
36 |
31 |
14 |
-22 |
Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania |
162.963 |
|
37 |
47 |
45 |
8 |
Mount Sinai Medical Center |
144.871 |
|
38 |
36 |
43 |
5 |
University of Kansas Hospital |
127.096 |
|
39 |
32 |
37 |
-2 |
University of Maryland Medical Center |
120.008 |
|
40 |
39 |
29 |
-11 |
Ohio State University Hospital |
118.009 |
|
41 |
37 |
41 |
0 |
Rush University Medical Center |
113.241 |
|
42 |
45 |
27 |
-15 |
Lahey Clinic |
99.54 |
|
43 |
40 |
33 |
-10 |
Emory University Hospital |
98.176 |
|
44 |
43 |
44 |
0 |
Loyola University Medical Center |
92.064 |
|
45 |
41 |
24 |
-21 |
University of Alabama Hospital at Birmingham |
75.804 |
|
46 |
48 |
36 |
-10 |
Beaumont Hospital |
57.297 |
|
47 |
44 |
42 |
-5 |
Yale - New Haven Hospital |
42.171 |
|
48 |
46 |
35 |
-13 |
Tampa General Hospital |
24.676 |
|
49 |
49 |
38 |
-11 |
City of Hope (Duarte, Ca) |
24.208 |
|
50 |
50 |
49 |
-1 |
St. Cloud Hospital (Saint Cloud, MN) |
18.285 |
|
51 |
51 |
47 |
-4 |
|
12.97 |
|
52 |
52 |
50 |
-2 |
Christiana Care (Newark, DE) |
11.33 |
|
* |
|||||
|
Table 1: Top 50 U.S. Hospitals
as determined by the 2010 USNWR rankings re-ranked using the Academic
Ranking Score (2005-2010) -- a novel metric, which quantitates a
hospital's contribution to the academic literature. |
|||||