Joshua J Weis, MD1, Adnan Alseidi, MD, EdM2, Rohan D Jeyarajah, MD3, Michael Schweitzer, MD4, Vanessa Cheung, BS5, Yumi Hori, BA5, Daniel J Scott, MD1. 1University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, 2Virginia Mason Medical Center, 3Methodist Richardson Medical Center, 4Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, 5The Fellowship Council
Introduction: The Fellowship Council (FC) oversees 158 non-ACGME surgical fellowships offering 200 fellowship positions per year. These training programs cover multiple specialties including Advanced gastrointestinal (GI), Advanced GI/MIS, Bariatric, Hepatopancreaticobiliary (HPB), Flexible Endoscopy, Colorectal, and Thoracic Surgery. Although some data have been published detailing the practice environments (i.e. urban vs. rural) and yearly total case volumes of FC alumni, there is a lack of granular data regarding the practice patterns of FC graduates. The aim of this study was to gather detailed data on the specific case types performed and surgical approaches employed by recent FC alumni.
Methods: A 21 item survey covering 64 data points was emailed to 835 FC alumni who completed their fellowship between 2013 and 2017. Email addresses were obtained from FC program directors and FC archives.
Results: We received 327 responses (39% response rate). HPB, Advanced Colorectal, and Advanced Thoracic alumni appear to establish practices focused on their respective fields. Graduates from Advanced GI, Adv GI/MIS, and Bariatric programs appear to build practices with a mix of several complex GI case types. The table below displays the proportion of FC alumni who reported a given practice pattern.
Conclusions: This is the first large data set to provide granular information on the practice patterns of FC alumni. FC trained surgeons perform impressive volumes of complex procedures, and minimally invasive approaches are extremely prevalent in these practices. Further, many graduates carve out practices with large footprints in robotics and endoscopy.
Presented at the SAGES 2017 Annual Meeting in Houston, TX.
Abstract ID: 94637
Program Number: S013
Presentation Session: Education
Presentation Type: Podium