Collaborative Development and Implementation of a Hybrid Virtual Surgery Clerkship Curriculum in a Vietnamese Medical School.

Objective: To collaboratively develop a hybrid virtual curriculum for a medical school surgery clerkship within an emerging medical university in Vietnam.

Design: A hybrid virtual surgery clerkship curriculum was collaboratively developed by Vietnamese and American surgeons as part of an international partnership between their respective universities. A set of 25 virtual lectures with associated materials were created and deployed in tandem with live, in-person review and skills sessions.

Evaluating The Role of ChatGPT as a Study Aid in Medical Education in Surgery.

Objective: Our aim was to assess how ChatGPT compares to Google search in assisting medical students during their surgery clerkships.

Design: We conducted a crossover study where participants were asked to complete 2 standardized assessments on different general surgery topics before and after they used either Google search or ChatGPT.

Setting: The study was conducted at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (PSOM) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Medical Student Perceptions of Academic Surgery: Rose-Colored Glasses or Jaded Prism?

Objective: Stereotypes of surgeons are pervasive and play a role in medical students' decisions about pursuing a surgical career. This study aimed to determine: (1) how medical students' perceptions of surgery and surgeons changed following exposure to surgery during clerkship rotations; and (2) if gender and racial/ethnic identification played a role in this process.

Design, Setting, And Participants: In this mixed-method study, clerkship students at one U.

The Impact of Breast Cancer Type, Staging, and Treatment on Vascular Complications of Immediate Free-Flap Breast Reconstruction.

Background: Patients with advanced cancer staging have a greater risk of developing venous thromboembolism than noncancer patients. The impact of breast cancer stage and treatment on outcomes after autologous free-flap breast reconstruction (ABR) is not well-established. The objective of this retrospective study is to determine the impact of breast cancer characteristics, such as cancer stage, hormone receptor status, and neoadjuvant treatments, on vascular complications of ABR.

Preoperative MRI and Its Impact on Surgical Outcomes in Patients with Triple Negative Breast Cancer Treated with Primary Surgery: Did New Margin Guidelines or Cavity Shave Margins Practice Diminish the Role of Preoperative MRI?

Background: Results of an earlier retrospective study from our institution suggested that patients with triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) who had preoperative MRI may have had an improved local recurrence rate (LRR) after breast conserving surgery (BCS). We aimed to clarify the impact of preoperative MRI on surgical outcomes in an expanded TNBC cohort treated by BCS in a contemporary era.

Methods: Our study cohort comprised 648 patients with TNBC who underwent BCS between 2009 and 2018.

Teaching what matters: Integrating health equity education into the core surgery clerkship.

Background: Significant disparities in surgical outcomes exist. It is imperative to prepare future doctors to eliminate disparities. Our team of senior medical students developed a surgical clerkship module examining equity in prostate cancer.

A Plan-Do-Study-Act Approach to the Development, Implementation and Evaluation of a Patient Navigation Program to Reduce Breast Cancer Screening Disparities in Un- and Under-Insured, Racially and Ethnically Diverse Urban Women.

For the over 28 million Americans without health insurance, there is a great need to develop programs that help meet the health needs of the uninsured population. We applied the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) quality improvement framework to the development, implementation, and evaluation of a breast cancer screening navigation program for un- and under-insured women. Six critical steps emerged: (1) obtain program funding; (2) navigator training; (3) establish a referral base network of community partners that serve the un- and under-insured women; (4) implement a process to address the barriers to accessing mammography; (5) develop a language- and culturally-tailored messaging and media campaign; and (6) develop measures and process evaluation to optimize and expand the program's reach.

Post-mastectomy breast reconstruction: reducing the disparity through educational outreach to the underserved.

Purpose: Poor health literacy and awareness are thought to be some of the major contributors to existing racial/ethnic disparities in access to breast reconstruction after mastectomy. This study aimed to determine whether physician led, community-based educational symposium improves understanding of breast cancer care and breast reconstruction in underserved populations.

Methods: Annual educational symposiums were held between 2017 and 2019 in underserved communities in the greater Philadelphia area.

Can We Coach Resilience? An Evaluation of Professional Resilience Coaching as a Well-Being Initiative for Surgical Interns.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the use of a professionally trained, resilience coach for surgical interns.

Design: Mixed-methods study with pre- and postcoaching quantitative surveys measuring burnout and resilience factors and semistructured interviews.

Setting: General, Vascular, Cardiac, Plastic, and Urologic Surgery residencies at a tertiary academic center.

Clinical Utility of a Hand-Held Scanner for Breast Cancer Early Detection and Patient Triage.

Purpose: Globally, breast cancer represents the most common cause of cancer death among women. Early cancer diagnosis is difficult in low- and middle-income countries, most of which are unable to support population-based mammographic screening. Triage on the basis of clinical breast examination (CBE) alone can be difficult to implement.

Changing practice patterns of adjuvant radiation among elderly women with early stage breast cancer in the United States from 2004 to 2014.

Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have challenged the need for routine radiation therapy (RT) in women ≥ age 70 with favorable early stage breast cancer (BC) due to modest improvement in local control and no survival benefit. We studied practice patterns in RT among elderly women in the United States. We analyzed data from the National Cancer Database (NCDB) of women ≥age 70 diagnosed with T1 or T2 and N0 invasive BC treated with breast conservation surgery (BCS) between 2004 and 2014.

Quality of life and sexual well-being after nipple sparing mastectomy: A matched comparison of patients using the breast Q.

Background: Nipple sparing mastectomy (NSM) is considered safe for select patients. Our objective was to examine quality of life (QOL) and satisfaction for NSM compared with skin sparing mastectomy (SSM). We aimed to evaluate these using the BREAST-Q.

Curriculum Using the In-Situ Operating Room Setting.

Objective: The American College of Surgeons/Association of Program Directors in Surgery is a comprehensive, simulation-based curriculum for General Surgery residents which exists in 3 phases. While phases 1 and 2 deal with core skills and advanced procedures respectively, phase 3 targets team-based skills. To date, the 3rd phase of this curriculum has not seen wide scale implementation.

"How To" Videos Improve Residents Performance of Essential Perioperative Electronic Medical Records and Clinical Tasks.

Objective: The ability to use electronic medical records (EMR) is an essential skill for surgical residents. However, frustration and anxiety surrounding EMR tasks may detract from clinical performance. We created a series of brief, 1-3 minutes "how to" videos demonstrating 7 key perioperative EMR tasks: booking OR cases, placing preprocedure orders, ordering negative-pressure wound dressing supplies, updating day-of-surgery history and physical notes, writing brief operative notes, discharging patients from the postanesthesia care unit, and checking vital signs.

Danazol alters mitochondria metabolism of fibrocystic breast Mcf10A cells.

Fibrocystic Breast Disease (FBD) or Fibrocystic change (FC) affects about 60% of women at some time during their life. Although usually benign, it is often associated with pain and tenderness (mastalgia). The synthetic steroid danazol has been shown to be effective in reducing the pain associated with FBD, but the cellular and molecular mechanisms for its action have not been elucidated.

Integration of Hands-On Team Training into Existing Curriculum Improves Both Technical and Nontechnical Skills in Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy.

Objective: Nontechnical skills are an essential component of surgical education and a major competency assessed by the ACGME milestones project. However, the optimal way to integrate nontechnical skills training into existing curricula and then objectively evaluate the outcome is still unknown. The aim of this study was to determine the effect laparoscopic team-based task training would have on the nontechnical skills needed for laparoscopic surgery.

In Situ Operating Room-Based Simulation: A Review.

Objective: To systematically review the literature surrounding operating room-based in situ training in surgery.

Methods: A systematic review was conducted of MEDLINE. The review was conducted based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) methodology, and employed the Population, Intervention, Comparator, Outcome (PICO) structure to define inclusion/exclusion criteria.

Involvement of multiple stressors induced by non-thermal plasma-charged aerosols during inactivation of airborne bacteria.

A lab-scale, tunable, single-filament, point-to-point nonthermal dieletric-barrier discharge (DBD) plasma device was built to study the mechanisms of inactivation of aerosolized bacterial pathogens. The system inactivates airborne antibiotic-resistant pathogens efficiently. Nebulization mediated pre-optimized (4 log and 7 log) bacterial loads were challenged to plasma-charged aerosols, and lethal and sublethal doses determined using colony assay, and cell viability assay; and the loss of membrane potential and cellular respiration were determined using cell membrane potential assay and XTT assay.

Development of array piezoelectric fingers towards in vivo breast tumor detection.

We have investigated the development of a handheld 4 × 1 piezoelectric finger (PEF) array breast tumor detector system towards in vivo patient testing, particularly, on how the duration of the DC applied voltage, the depression depth of the handheld unit, and breast density affect the PEF detection sensitivity on 40 patients. The tests were blinded and carried out in four phases: with DC voltage durations 5, 3, 2, to 0.8 s corresponding to scanning a quadrant, a half, a whole breast, and both breasts within 30 min, respectively.

A cost-effective handheld breast scanner for use in low-resource environments: a validation study.

Background: With the incidence of breast cancer rising worldwide, we are evaluating the iBreastExam (iBE) (UE LifeSciences Inc.), a handheld breast scanning device that can be utilized by community health workers to screen for breast abnormalities. The purpose of this study is to determine the sensitivity of the iBE in a population undergoing diagnostic breast imaging.

Can Simulated Team Tasks be Used to Improve Nontechnical Skills in the Operating Room?

Objective: The purpose of this study was to understand the effect of a team-based surgical skills intervention on the technical and nontechnical skills of surgery residents.

Design: This was a prospective cohort study with pretesting or posttesting. We designed basic tasks for the assessment and learning of nontechnical skills in the operating room (OR).

Mitochondria-Mediated Anticancer Effects of Non-Thermal Atmospheric Plasma.

Non-thermal atmospheric pressure plasma has attracted great interest due to its multiple potential biomedical applications with cancer treatment being among the most urgent. To realize the clinical potential of non-thermal plasma, the exact cellular and molecular mechanisms of plasma effects must be understood. This work aimed at studying the prostate cancer specific mechanisms of non-thermal plasma effects on energy metabolism as a central regulator of cell homeostasis and proliferation.