Development and Evaluation of a Presenter Coaching Program at an Academic Surgical Conference.

Objective: Presenting at academic conferences is an important means of disseminating research, networking, and building a professional reputation, but the quality of presentations at conferences is often suboptimal. This project describes the design, implementation, and evaluation of a presentation coaching program offered by an academic surgical society to presenters at its annual meeting.

Design: Oral presenters were paired with a coach and encouraged to meet independently, yet coaching was unstructured.

A Multicenter Analysis of the Early Impact of COVID-19 on Junior Resident Operative Case Volume.

Introduction: Institutions have reported decreases in operative volume due to COVID-19. Junior residents have fewer opportunities for operative experience and COVID-19 further jeopardizes their operative exposure. This study quantifies the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on resident operative exposure using resident case logs focusing on junior residents and categorizes the response of surgical residency programs to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Beyond the Surgical Time-Out: A National Needs Assessment of Preoperative Communication in US General Surgery Residency Programs.

Objective: Perioperative communication is critical for procedural learning. In order to develop a periprocedural faculty development tool, we aimed to characterize the current status of preoperative communication in US General Surgery residency programs.

Design: After Association of Program Directors in Surgery approval, a survey was distributed to general surgery programs.

Association Between Entrustable Professional Activities and Milestones Evaluations: Real-time Assessments Correlate With Semiannual Reviews.

Objective: Entrustable professional activities (EPAs) have been developed to refine competency-based education. The American Board of Surgery has initiated a 2-year pilot study to evaluate the impact of EPAs on the evaluation and feedback of surgical residents. The ACGME Milestones in Surgery is a semiannual competency-based evaluation program to measure resident progression through 16 professional attributes across 8 practice domains.

Concordance Between Expert and Nonexpert Ratings of Condensed Video-Based Trainee Operative Performance Assessment.

Objective: We examined the impact of video editing and rater expertise in surgical resident evaluation on operative performance ratings of surgical trainees.

Design: Randomized independent review of intraoperative video.

Setting: Operative video was captured at a single, tertiary hospital in Boston, MA.

A systematic review and meta-analysis of predictors of recurrence in patients with Solid Pseudopapillary Tumors of the Pancreas.

Background: The recurrence rates and predictors of recurrence in patients with Solid Pseudopapillary tumors (SPT) are unclear, which makes it challenging to determine the duration of follow-up. The aim of the current study was to perform a systematic review and meta-analysis to determine the recurrence rates and pathologic factors associated with recurrence in patients with SPT.

Methods: A PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science search was conducted to identify studies of SPT published during the last 15 years: (09/2002-09/2017).

The effect of gender on operative autonomy in general surgery residents.

Background: Despite an increasing number of women in the field of surgery, bias regarding cognitive or technical ability may continue to affect the experience of female trainees differently than their male counterparts. This study examines the differences in the degree of operative autonomy given to female compared with male general surgery trainees.

Methods: A smartphone app was used to collect evaluations of operative autonomy measured using the 4-point Zwisch scale, which describes defined steps in the progression from novice ("show and tell") to autonomous surgeon ("supervision only").

Is the operative autonomy granted to a resident consistent with operative performance quality.

Background: We investigated attending surgeon decisions regarding resident operative autonomy, including situations where operative autonomy was discordant with performance quality.

Methods: Attending surgeons assessed operative performance and documented operative autonomy granted to residents from 14 general surgery residency programs. Concordance between performance and autonomy was defined as "practice ready performance/meaningfully autonomous" or "not practice ready/not meaningfully autonomous.

Readiness of US General Surgery Residents for Independent Practice.

Objective: This study evaluates the current state of the General Surgery (GS) residency training model by investigating resident operative performance and autonomy.

Background: The American Board of Surgery has designated 132 procedures as being "Core" to the practice of GS. GS residents are expected to be able to safely and independently perform those procedures by the time they graduate.

Using the ACGME Milestones for Resident Self-Evaluation and Faculty Engagement.

Background: Since July 2014 General Surgery residency programs have been required to use the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education milestones twice annually to assess the progress of their trainees. We felt this change was a great opportunity to use this new evaluation tool for resident self-assessment and to furthermore engage the faculty in the educational efforts of the program.

Methods: We piloted the milestones with postgraduate year (PGY) II and IV residents during the 2013/2014 academic year to get faculty and residents acquainted with the instrument.

The Feasibility of Real-Time Intraoperative Performance Assessment With SIMPL (System for Improving and Measuring Procedural Learning): Early Experience From a Multi-institutional Trial.

Purpose: Intraoperative performance assessment of residents is of growing interest to trainees, faculty, and accreditors. Current approaches to collect such assessments are limited by low participation rates and long delays between procedure and evaluation. We deployed an innovative, smartphone-based tool, SIMPL (System for Improving and Measuring Procedural Learning), to make real-time intraoperative performance assessment feasible for every case in which surgical trainees participate, and hypothesized that SIMPL could be feasibly integrated into surgical training programs.

Limiting ventilator-associated lung injury in a preterm porcine neonatal model.

Purpose: Preterm infants are prone to respiratory distress syndrome (RDS), with severe cases requiring mechanical ventilation for support. However, there are no clear guidelines regarding the optimal ventilation strategy. We hypothesized that airway pressure release ventilation (APRV) would mitigate lung injury in a preterm porcine neonatal model.

The impact of brief team communication, leadership and team behavior training on ad hoc team performance in trauma care settings.

Background: Communication breakdowns and care coordination problems often cause preventable adverse patient care events, which can be especially acute in the trauma setting, in which ad hoc teams have little time for advanced planning. Existing teamwork curricula do not address the particular issues associated with ad hoc emergency teams providing trauma care.

Methods: Ad hoc trauma teams completed a preinstruction simulated trauma encounter and were provided with instruction on appropriate team behaviors and team communication.

Endoscopic management of a duodenal duplication cyst.

Gastrointestinal duplications are rare congenital anomalies. Five percent to 10% of them are found in the duodenum. Traditionally, these lesions are treated surgically using either a laparoscopic or open transduodenal approach.

A surgical simulation curriculum for senior medical students based on TeamSTEPPS.

Objective: To investigate whether the existing Team Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety (TeamSTEPPS) curriculum can effectively teach senior medical students team skills. DESIGN Single-group preintervention and postintervention study.

Setting And Intervention: We integrated a TeamSTEPPS module into our existing resident readiness elective.

Engaging medical students in the feedback process.

Background: There are potential advantages to engaging medical students in the feedback process, but efforts to do so have yielded mixed results. The purpose of this study was to evaluate a student-focused feedback instructional session in an experimental setting.

Methods: Medical students were assigned randomly to either the intervention or control groups and then assigned randomly to receive either feedback or compliments.

Team training for surgical trainees.

Healthcare professionals work in teams but are rarely trained together. Realizing the adverse impact of poor teamwork on patient care, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education requires surgical trainees to demonstrate a mastery of teamwork-related competencies. A number of team training curricula are available in the USA, the best known of which is TeamSTEPPS - developed by the U.

Verification of proficiency in basic skills for postgraduate year 1 residents.

Background: The American College of Surgeons and Association of Program Directors in Surgery Phase 1 curriculum involves basic surgical skills instructional modules and Verification of Proficiency. This article is a study and revision of beta versions of the Verification of Proficiency instruments.

Methods: Postgraduate year 1 residents were tested on 11 skills after undergoing lab instruction and practice.

Running a surgical education center: from small to large.

In the last 2 decades, surgical education has experienced a transformative paradigm shift from the purely service-based Halstedian system to a curriculum-driven model based on educational theory. With the advent of minimally invasive surgery and its educational challenges, fostered by the simultaneously occurring rapid advances of computer technology and graphics and further promoted by rising concerns about patient safety, simulation and skills training has become a well-established tool in the arsenal of the surgical educator. Although most training institutions now have access to skills laboratories and simulation centers, running and integrating these facilities into the surgical curriculum remains a challenge.

Complications and treatment failures of video-assisted thoracoscopic debridement for pediatric empyema.

Purpose: Video-assisted thoracoscopic debridement (VATD) is a well-established intervention to treat pediatric empyema. There is ongoing controversy at what stage in the treatment algorithm it should be utilized. To shed further light onto this debate, we reviewed our institutional experience looking for factors predicting treatment failure or complications of VATD.

Intradiaphragmatic extralobar sequestration-a rare pulmonary anomaly.

Extralobar pulmonary sequestrations are most commonly found within the thoracic cavity, but have been described within the abdomen. We present the case of a 16-month-old boy with an intradiaphragmatic pulmonary sequestration and demonstrate a computed tomographic scan finding that might help identify this extremely rare abnormality preoperatively.

Completely minimally invasive approach to restorative total proctocolectomy with j-pouch construction in children.

Restorative total proctocolectomy with J-pouch is a procedure used for children with severe ulcerative colitis or premalignant conditions like familial polyposis. The classic approach requires a laparotomy incision. Most published minimally invasive techniques still require a somewhat smaller incision to complete the procedure.