Does academic output correlate with better mortality rates in NHS trusts in England?
OBJECTIVE
To establish whether there is an association between academic output and mortality rates for National Health Service (NHS) trusts.


METHODS
Hospital standardized mortality ratios were obtained from Dr Foster hospital report cards. The Medline database of biomedical citations was queried to establish the number of citations credited to each NHS trust and constituent hospitals from 2006 to 2010. Admissions totals for NHS trusts for 2009-2010 were obtained from Hospital Episode Statistics Online. The number of citations per admission was calculated and used as an indicator of academic output as this reflects the workload of the trust.


RESULTS
Spearman's rank analysis was performed to identify any correlation between citations per admission and the inverse of four types of mortality rate: high-risk conditions, r = 0.20 (P = 0.01); low-risk conditions, r = -0.06 (P = 0.46); deaths after surgery, r = 0.193 (P = 0.019); and overall mortality, r = 0.291 (P < 0.01).


CONCLUSIONS
The results of this preliminary study demonstrate a significant correlation between academic output and mortality rates. The correlation coefficients are small, but the findings of this study encourage further debate.
ENT Department, Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Trust, Barrack Road, Exeter EX2 5DW, UK. Electronic address: warben@gmail.com.
W O
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Bennett
ENT Department, Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Trust, Barrack Road, Exeter EX2 5DW, UK.
J H
JH
Bird
ENT Department, Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Trust, Barrack Road, Exeter EX2 5DW, UK.
S A
SA
Burrows
ENT Department, Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Trust, Barrack Road, Exeter EX2 5DW, UK.
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Counter
ENT Department, Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Trust, Barrack Road, Exeter EX2 5DW, UK.
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Reddy
D015706:Bibliometrics; D004739:England / Q000453:epidemiology; D017052:Hospital Mortality / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012106:Research / Q000639:trends*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013222:State Medicine; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric