Joshua J Weis, MD1, Matthew Goldblatt, MD2, Aurora Pryor, MD3, Linda Schultz, BS4, Daniel J Scott, MD1. 1University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, 2Medical College of Wisconsin, 3Department of Surgery, Stony Brook University, 4Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons
Introduction: SAGES is responsible for defining the educational content for Advanced GI/MIS fellowships administered through the Fellowship Council (FC). Historically, these criteria have been somewhat broad, and experiences of individual fellows have been heterogeneous. In Fall 2016, in an effort to better define core content contained in these fellowships, SAGES leadership approved new case log criteria including minimum volumes within 6 defined categories (Table). To test feasibility of these criteria, SAGES conducted a pilot study during the 2017-18 academic year.
Methods: Advanced GI/MIS Fellowship Programs Directors (PD’s) who also held leadership roles in SAGES were invited to participate in the pilot. Fourteen programs including 17 fellows volunteered. To assess generalizability, 2016-2017 case log data for the volunteered pilot programs were compared to all other Advanced GI/MIS programs (n=92). To assess feasibility of the new criteria, pilot programs’ 2017-2018 case logs were compared to three years of historical fellows’ case logs (n=326). To provide feedback, case log totals were compiled at 3, 6, and 12 months and shared with PD’s. Fisher’s exact test was used for comparisons with p<0.05 considered significant.
Results: Complete data were available for 16 pilot fellows (464 total cases and endoscopies per fellow). According to 2016-2017 data, pilot programs were not statistically different from non-pilot programs regarding achievement of any defined category minimum. When compared to historical controls, the 2017-2018 pilot fellows were significantly more likely to meet defined category minimum for foregut cases. Regarding bariatrics, inguinal hernia, ventral hernia, and endoscopy, pilot fellows demonstrated non-significant trends toward higher achievement of these defined category minimums. Pilot fellows were significantly less likely to meet the minimum for HPB/Solid Organ/Colorectal/Thoracic cases (Table). Based on these data, SAGES leadership eliminated the HPB/Solid Organ/Colon/Thoracic category and, in partnership with the FC, approved staged implementation of the remaining criteria over 3 years.
Conclusions: The pilot study provided feasibility and generalizability evidence supporting implementation of all but one defined category. These new criteria will ensure core educational content and facilitate more robust disease-based curricula, while still allowing fellows opportunities to tailor their training experience.
Presented at the SAGES 2017 Annual Meeting in Houston, TX.
Abstract ID: 95091
Program Number: S008
Presentation Session: Education
Presentation Type: Podium