Academic vascular surgery in Germany: the need for a structured academic training program

During the past two decades, vascular surgery in Germany has been established as an independent subspecialty of surgery. Despite a substantial increase in the total number of vascular surgery departments, only a few independent academic vascular surgery units at university hospitals exist. Commonly, academic vascular surgery units have limited staff who are at the same time responsible for patient care, resident and student teaching, and clinical and experimental research. However, the lack of personnel and resources may limit the promotion and realisation of institutional research projects. In this article we analyse the general conditions for research as well as the scientific publication output at the independent academic vascular surgery units in Germany. Furthermore, we propose an "academic curriculum" that combines both basic laboratory research activities and comprehensive clinical training as the basis of an academic vascular surgery fellowship in Germany. In the long run, this curriculum model may attract medical school graduates interested in an academic career in vascular surgery, and it ultimately may increase the quality of vascular surgery research in Germany.