Surgeon educators call for changes to residency training

Surgical education leaders at the UW and two other leading medical schools have called for improvements to the country's surgery education system.

In an article in the November issue of Surgery, they suggest a more modular approach to intensify training in surgical specialties, broaden the education of general surgeons, and improve flexibility and performance measures.

Carlos A. Pellegrini, professor and chair of surgery, is the paper's lead author. Pellegrini is former chair of the Residency Review Committee, which oversees accreditation of all surgery training programs in the United States. The article's other authors are Andrew L. Warshaw, professor and chair of the Department of Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and a past chair of the American Board of Surgery; and Haile T. Debas, professor and chair emeritus, Department of Surgery, and dean emeritus at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine.

The paper notes the many changes in technology, society, and education since the surgical training system was developed near the turn of the 20th century, as well as the factors affecting residency training today.

The authors suggest gradually changing to a modular training approach, using core modules supplemented by specialty and sub-specialty modules. They also suggest requiring demonstrations of competency at checkpoints during the training process.