A. Brochu1, R. Aggarwal1 1McGill University,Faculty Of Medicine,Montreal, QC, Canada
Introduction:
Academic research is an integral part of residency training and several general surgery training programs offer opportunities for research experience. Despite standardization of surgical training requirements, there is perceived lack of structure and guidelines for residents who undertake research during their general surgery program. The aim of this study was to identify research opportunities, structure of research programs, and academic outputs during general surgical residency in United States of America (USA).
Methods:
A web-based review of all accredited general surgery residency programs in the USA was undertaken. Individual websites were reviewed for information regarding mandate, duration, and type/structure of research pursued by residents during their training. The research outputs (advanced degree, publications, presentations, grants), current projects in surgical departments and availability of faculty supervisors were also identified.
Results:
Data was available for 236 general surgery residency programs of which 135 (57.2%) offer dedicated research years, ranging from one to four years, and 29 (12,3%) programs mandate such time as required. 139 (58.9%) programs offered opportunities in clinical research, 124 (52.5%) in basic sciences research, 28 (11.9%) in health services and outcomes-based research, and 15 (6.4%) in education research. Advanced degree were mentioned for 37 (15.7%) programs: 16 (6.8 %) offer MBA, 21 (8.9%) Master of Public Health, 16 (6.8%) PhD, 12 (5.1%) Master of Sciences, 7 (3.0%) Master of Clinical Investigation and 5 (2.1%) Master in Education. 16 (11,9%) programs explained research structure and how resident research progress is followed. 52 (22.0%) programs provided examples of past resident research, 195 (82.6%) programs offered a list of faculty supervisors, and 128 (54.2%) listed examples of current department research projects.
Conclusion:
Opportunities for dedicated time for research during general surgical residency are present in about half of programs with over 10% mandating such time, though the structure and academic outputs of these programs are inconsistent and poorly portrayed. The majority of programs offer basic or clinical research with a paucity of programs offering education and health services research opportunities. About a quarter of the programs offer residents to pursue advanced degrees; the majority being MBA, MPH or PhD. Whilst research opportunities are ample during surgical US residency training, there is opportunity to provide better structure and guidelines to potentially enhance the research outputs.