Evolution of Multi-specialty Collaboration in Burn Surgery Research Across Four Decades

Abstract Introduction Burns care requires extensive multi-disciplinary expertise spanning surgical, medical and allied health specialties. While collaboration is fundamental to clinical practice, systematic analysis of multi-specialty academic partnerships in burns research has been limited. Understanding the specific patterns of interdisciplinary involvement provides crucial insights into how collaborative clinical care models translate into academic medicine. Methods We analyzed 18 275 articles from 11 burns journals(1982-2025) using automated PubMed data mining to identify collaborative publications. Specialty involvement was determined through systematic affiliation analysis across all papers. Multi-specialty combinations were categorized to assess percentage involvement of multiple specialties. Statistical analysis included chi-square tests for specialty involvement patterns and linear regression for temporal trends. Results Among 14 675 analyzable papers, multi-specialty involvement affected 15.6% of all burns literature, demonstrating substantial interdisciplinary collaboration across the field. Plastic surgery appeared in 28.6% of all papers, general surgery in 19.4%, with combined plastic-general surgery collaboration comprising 5.5% of the entire corpus (805 papers). Plastic surgery-general surgery papers were significantly more likely to involve additional specialties than single-department publications (OR = 1.64, χ2 = 33.543, p.001). The most common multi-specialty combination was plastic + general surgery (4.05% of all papers). Individual specialty involvement revealed: pediatrics (9.3% of all papers), critical care (5.2%), physical therapy (4.5%), anesthesia (3.7%). Temporal analysis demonstrated dramatic growth in multi-specialty collaboration: from 0.9% of papers (1980s) to 27.8% (2020s), representing a 30-fold increase in interdisciplinary partnerships over four decades. Conclusions This analysis reveals that collaboration in burns surgery extends far beyond clinical practice into academic medicine, with systematic patterns of multi-specialty involvement reflecting the complexity of burn care. The dramatic 30-fold increase in multi-specialty publications demonstrates the field's evolution toward integrated care models. Nearly a fifth of all burns literature now involves multiple specialties, with plastic surgery-general surgery partnerships serving as collaboration catalysts that significantly increase likelihood of additional specialty involvement. These findings establish burns surgery as a model for multi-specialty academic collaboration in reflecting real-life clinical practice. Applicability of Research to Practice This research highlights the importance of multi-specialty collaboration in burn care. There is a push for collaboration in medicine among specialties. Allowing for strong relationships between specialties will ultimately lead to better patient care. Funding for the study N/A.