Goals, Structure, and Financing of Surgical Residency Training: A Subcommittee Report of the Blue Ribbon Committee II.

Objective: As part of the Blue Ribbon Committee II, review current goals, structure and financing of surgical training in Graduate Medical Education (GME) and recommend needed changes.

Background: Surgical training has continually undergone major transitions with the 80-hour work week, earlier specialization (vascular, plastics, and cardiovascular), and now entrustable professional activities as part of competency-based medical education (CBME). Changes are needed to ensure the efficiencies of CBME are utilized, that stable graduate medical education funding is secured, and that support for surgeons who teach is made available.

Overexpression of human Bcl-2 in syngeneic rat donor lungs preserves posttransplant function and reduces intragraft caspase activity and interleukin-1beta production.

Background: A significant cause of primary graft failure in lung transplantation is ischemia-reperfusion (I/R). I/R injury generates proinflammatory cytokines, such as interleukin (IL)-1beta, and activates the caspase-mediated pathways of alveolar epithelial apoptosis. The authors investigated whether gene transfer of the human antiapoptotic protein Bcl-2 by means of intratracheal adenoviral administration would preserve posttransplant lung function and reduce intragraft activated caspase activity and IL-1beta production in syngeneic rat donor lung grafts.

The road to clinical xenotransplantation: a worthwhile journey.

Xenotransplantation carries numerous ethical dilemmas. In the Position Paper of the Ethics Committee of the International Xenotransplantation Association, Sykes et al. diagram important ethics issues including respect for clinical subjects characterized by proper informed consent, and beneficence to the patient and the community at large, highlighting the possible risk of porcine endogenous retroviruses and xenotourism.