Program directors in surgery agree that residents should be formally trained in business and practice management.

Background: Surgical residents typically receive limited exposure to business and practice management during their training. As a result, residents are ill-prepared for issues related to starting a practice, coding, collecting, and taking a meaningful role within the medical community in promoting quality and safety and in containing health care costs. With the introduction of the core competencies and the current overhaul of surgical education, we believe there is an opportunity to include business and practice management into resident training.