Identifying the Geographic Profile of International Visitors to the United States for Neurosurgical Education: A Single Institution's Experience

Background: Departments of neurosurgery in the United States have had a long history of hosting international visitors for the advancement of their neurosurgical education. The goal of the present study was to determine the existence of a geographic profile of international visitors for education purposes, both students and graduates, to the United States through the anecdotal experience of 1 department to explore the reach and worth of hosting such opportunities. Methods: Administrative records were retrospectively reviewed for international visitors over the preceding 10 years, 2009–2019, were surveyed at 1 institution. Visitors were grouped as either medical students or graduates, visiting for clinical or research purposes. Geographic trends were compared using the Pearson chi-squared test. Results: We identified 128 visitors from 33 countries during the study period. The most common home countries were Italy (10%), China (9%), and India (7%). The cohort involved 62 (48%) students and 66 (52%) graduates, and 59 (46%) and 69 (54%) visited for clinical and research purposes, respectively. The geographic distribution of student versus graduate visitors was statistically significant by region (P < 0.01). However, the geographic distribution of clinical versus research visitors was not statistically different by region (P = 0.62). Conclusions: There appears to be international appeal worldwide to participate in neurosurgical education in the United States. At our institution, every geographic region was represented in our most recent decade of experience. International visitor profiles appear to be associated with particular geographic patterns depending on their status as either a medical student or graduate.