Factors determining the ultimate fate of a plastic surgery applicant

Plastic surgery residency program directors are frequently interested in predictors of future career direction in their applicants. Many programs strive to train leaders in academic plastic surgery. To determine what factors may predict the ultimate fate of graduating plastic surgery residents, the authors reviewed the application files of 33 former residents from a single, major plastic surgery training program. The data from 29 residents were available for analysis. Nearly half of the residents graduating from the plastic surgery training program went into private practice. Two factors, the number of years taken off for research before entering the plastic surgery residency and the presence of children, were found to be indicative of a candidate's future career path. Of particular note, there was no difference between academic graduates and nonacademic graduates with regard to their intentions in their letters of recommendation and personal statements. This information is useful to both academic program directors and resident applicants.     

Outcome-based residency education: teaching and evaluating the core competencies in plastic surgery

Through its oversight of residency education in the United States, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education has mandated new structural changes in resident education with its newly created core competencies and an emphasis on outcomes-based education. These core competencies represent the central areas in which the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education believes a plastic surgery resident should receive adequate and appropriate education and training. In addition, as part of this outcomes-based education, residents are to be evaluated on their level of mastery in these core competencies. Increasingly, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education will assess the ability of residency programs to integrate the teaching and evaluating of the core competencies in their accreditation process of plastic surgery residency programs. This shift in residency evaluation initiated by the Outcomes Project by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education will have a significant impact in how plastic surgery residents are taught and, as importantly, evaluated in the coming years. The objectives of this work were as follows: (1) to outline the different methods available to foster a core competency-based plastic surgery training curriculum and (2) to serve as a primer to help both full-time academic and clinical faculty to further develop their curriculum to successfully teach and constructively evaluate their residents in the core competencies in accordance with the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education guidelines. At the conclusion of this review, the reader should have a better understanding of what is necessary to formulate and help foster a plastic surgery core competency curriculum, particularly with an emphasis on the contemporary methods used for outcomes evaluations.     

Systems-based practice: education in plastic surgery

The current Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education guidelines separate residents' education into six core competencies or subjects. The authors address the least intuitive of these, systems-based practice. In systems-based practice, educators and residents must demonstrate an awareness of and responsiveness to the larger context and system of health care and the ability to effectively call on system resources to provide care that is of optimal value. Plastic surgery is a specialty that is intimately involved with the economics, coordination of care, and real-life experience of resource allocation. It should be avant-garde in the development of a systems-based educational experience and be in the forefront in creating an appropriate and well-thought-out teaching agenda for graduate medical education. The authors explain and expand this definition to include objectives for plastic surgery training, programs, and individual learning goals. A series of didactic lectures, small group discussions, and grand round presentations are suggested to fulfill and facilitate the educational objectives. A potential time allotment and method of objective and subjective evaluations are offered.     

Aged care staff perspectives on oral care for residents: Western Australia

Objective: To determine manager and staff perceptions of oral health and dental service issues for residents in aged care facilities in the Perth Metropolitan Area, Western Australia. Design: Focus groups and face‐to‐face semi‐structured interviews with aged care facility managers and staff. Setting and subjects: Personnel at 12 facilities (high‐level and low‐level care) located in the Perth Metropolitan Area participated in the study. Interviews were conducted with 14 facility managers. Focus groups and face‐to‐face interviews were conducted with 40 facility staff. Results: Managers and staff had similar views regarding most issues. While resident oral health was considered important, regular oral care programmes were limited or lacking. In general, high care facility residents did not have regular dental checkups, while those in low‐level care facilities usually visited their own dentist for checkups or treatment. Barriers to maintaining regular oral care included: resident non‐compliance; financial concerns; lack of co‐operation from family; mobility issues; and lack of interest from dental professionals. Suggested improvements to current services included regular on‐site visits, staff education and specialised dental professionals. Conclusion: Residents face many barriers to maintenance of adequate oral health care, particularly those who are functionally dependent and cognitively impaired. There is an urgent need for appropriate oral care programmes for aged care residents, which include dentists with aged care experience and continuing education for facility staff. Any major programmes should be evaluated carefully.     

Telemedicine in plastic surgery: E-consult the attending surgeon

Telemedicine has evolved into a valuable but underused resource for the delivery of health care to patients at a distance, particularly where patient transport is impractical, expensive, complicated, and/or urgent. Today, over 250,000 telemedicine consults are generated annually, involving various specialties in both military and civilian health delivery systems. The ability to evaluate and triage plastic surgery patients through the use of telemedicine has not been widely explored. We have designed, developed, and tested a "store-and-forward" solution at UMass Memorial Hospital and Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital whereby the plastic surgery residents who responded to a consult request transmitted digital photographs by means of the Internet to the attending physician on call. The customary telephone call between resident and attending physician benefited from the additional photographic data, and patient management resulted in a clear, concise, and unambiguous treatment plan. The initial management suggested by the resident was modified on some occasions, particularly with complex problems. The use of digital images was especially helpful for evaluation of radiographs and complex wounds of the hand and face. The solution proved to be very valuable for both attending physicians and residents in plastic surgery. The photographs provide rich detail and resolution comparable to high-quality prints. The mechanics of obtaining images and the process of sending them electronically was readily mastered. Images reached their destination in only a few minutes over standard telephone lines. No problems were encountered while sending or viewing images on Macintosh or Windows platforms. Determining course of action with a complete clinical history now includes a level of visual detail previously not available. As this application expands into wider use, data integrity and safety will have to be more formally secured and monitored. Our model of telemedicine has broad-reaching ramifications for the improvement of health-care delivery locally, nationally, and internationally.     

Managed care's attempts to capture aesthetic surgery

Managed care organizations recently have attempted to add aesthetic surgery to their line of available services. To better understand the challenges posed by these actions, all members of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery were surveyed about managed care overtures to aesthetic plastic surgeons, their responses, and the likely responses of their patients. The goal was to examine both the supplier and consumer ends of the aesthetic surgery market to determine the likely effects of managed care's attempts to capture aesthetic surgery. A total of 632 plastic surgeons returned the surveys (response rate, 54.5 percent). Twenty-two percent reported being approached by managed care organizations about joining a panel of aesthetic surgeons. Approximately one-quarter of the plastic surgeons said they would participate in aesthetic surgery panels developed by managed care organizations. Characteristics significantly associated with willingness to participate were solo practice structure, a low percentage of practice revenues from aesthetic surgery, and a very competitive practice environment. Plastic surgeons believed that their colleagues would be even more willing to acquiesce to managed care aesthetic surgery; more than one-third said that 25 to 50 percent of their colleagues would join, and nearly one-third thought that more than half would participate. Plastic surgeons believed that many of their patients would also participate in managed care aesthetic surgery. Twenty-four percent thought that more than half of their patients would choose an aesthetic surgeon through their managed care organization if that organization developed a network for aesthetic surgery. This figure increased to almost 40 percent if the organization would deny coverage for complications resulting from nonpanel surgeons, and to 41 percent if the organization would offer price discounts. This survey shows that most plastic surgeons are against managed care aesthetic surgery. But it also shows that some plastic surgeons will participate, and that most plastic surgeons think many of their colleagues and patients will do likewise. This means that managed care organizations have the potential to make inroads in aesthetic surgery on both the supplier and consumer ends of the market. To prevent managed care from capturing aesthetic surgery, plastic surgeons must anticipate the likely business strategy of managed care. To this end, they must understand the steps involved in the creation of a new service business and offer organized countermeasures against each of them.     

A new educational role for plastic surgery in the fourth year of medical school

At most medical schools, students are offered limited or sporadic experiences in plastic surgery. This is unfortunate because all physicians need to possess the knowledge and skills to evaluate skin lesions and participate in wound management. Also, students who are considering a career in plastic surgery do not have adequate information to make informed decisions. With the restructuring of plastic surgery training programs, career decisions of individuals interested in plastic surgery are being made earlier than ever before in the education continuum, and the aforementioned problem assumes greater magnitude both for the students and the faculty. At MCP-Hahnemann School of Medicine, basic plastic surgery experiences have been integrated into the third-year surgery clerkship as a requirement for all students, and a Plastic Surgery Pathway has been designed in conjunction with the school's pathway system for fourth-year students. The Pathway provides a framework for the student to select a combination of rotations that will best provide an appropriate broad-based education in preparation for training in plastic surgery, and it provides extensive guidance by faculty members in the discipline to assist with career decisions, rotation selection, and preparations for the residency application process. Students in the Plastic Surgery Pathway are required to take rotations in medicine, neurology, and plastic surgery. The remaining rotations are selected from a list of options based on the student's individual learning needs, interests, and career aspirations. Early experience with the Plastic Surgery Pathway has shown that it has been well received by students and faculty, has assisted students with their career decisions, and has led to an increased student awareness of the importance and relevance of the specialty.     

Where have all the giants gone? Reconciling medical education and the traditions of patient care with limitations on resident work hours

The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education recently approved regulations that would prohibit residents from working more than 80 hours per week and more than 24 hours at a stretch. These regulations are scheduled to take effect in all U.S. teaching hospitals on 1 July 2003. Those who approve of the proposed regulations argue that house staff fatigue is responsible for physician error, depression, anger, and a lack of compassion for patients. But critics point to the adverse effects on key goals of house staff training--the development of accountability and responsibility. Can the rigorous discipline of medical education and the long tradition of medicine as a profession be reconciled with the current calls for limiting resident duty hours and on-call schedules? The intensity of patient care in teaching hospitals today is far greater than it was in the past. These changes in medical care make it critical to develop new programs that will reconcile rigorous, scientifically based humanistic medicine with the needs of patients and physicians. This will require imaginative and creative solutions that take a larger view of medical education and medical care than mere manpower calculations and numerical solutions focused simply on compliance with an 80-hour work week.     

对编写上海市医学影像科(放射科)住院医师规范化培训教材的思考与探讨

始于2010年的上海市住院医师规范化培训模式是我国新的医师培养模式,经历3年的实践及完善,从制度及培训基地建设与管理、培训模式及教学经验等方面均取得了可喜的成绩。鉴于放射科住院医师在一定程度上的特殊性,本文以我院放射科基地为例,从基地医师的教育及知识背景、后续的继续教育及职业规划等方面对编写上海市医学影像科(放射科)住院医师规范化培训教材的必要性及可行性进行了分析与探讨,然后对编写此教材的定位、知识体系、参编人员构成、教材编写中的注意事项等提出了具体的看法并进行了初步探讨,供各基地教学实施过程中借鉴,共同推动上海市医学影像科(放射科)住院医师规范化工作,提高医学影像学(放射科)规范化培训医师的整体水平。     

Oral hygiene care status of elderly with dementia and in residential aged care facilities

doi: 10.1111/j.1741‐2358.2011.00472.x
Oral hygiene care status of elderly with dementia and in residential aged care facilities Objective: To explore the effectiveness of oral hygiene care on plaque and gingival status of residents with dementia. Background: Oral hygiene and oral hygiene care has been reported to be poor among the institutionalised elderly with dementia. The severity of oral diseases has been shown to increase with the severity of physical and cognitive impairment related with dementia. Little research has been carried out on plaque and gingival status of elderly with dementia and the impact of disability related with dementia on oral health in residential aged care facilities (RACF). Materials and methods: A cross‐sectional study of 205 elderly residing in RACF in Perth. Results: Forty‐one percent of the residents in RACF had dementia. Sixty percent of the residents with dementia and 75% of the residents with an Activities of Daily Living Oral Health score of D were assisted with oral care. Mean plaques scores and extent of gingival inflammation were higher for residents in the DD and D subgroups and resident with dementia. Residents assisted with brushing had higher mean plaque score and more moderate gingival inflammation. Conclusion: Oral hygiene care status in residents with dementia was poor despite the fact that oral care assistance was being provided.     

肝胆外科住院医师规范化培训教学探讨

住院医师培训是医学教育中重要环节之一,是提高临床医疗水平的关键。因此,如何探索科学、合理的住院医师培养方案,已成为临床医学教育探索的重要课题。本文对肝胆外科住院医师规范化培训的实践进行了总结分析,希望对提高肝胆外科住院医师规范化培训效果起到一定的促进作用。     

Planning elective operations on patients who smoke: survey of North American plastic surgeons.

Patient smoking status affects many aspects of plastic surgery, including patient selection, counseling, management, and outcomes. No specific recommendations for performing elective procedures on patients who smoke are available. The goal of this study was to determine the current practice standards and attitudes toward this often controversial topic. In September of 2000, 1600 members of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery were sent questionnaires, 955 of which were returned. Questions elicited categorical answers, either dichotomous or multiple choice. Data were evaluated using logistic regression and the chi-square and binomial tests. Our results show that 60 percent (p < 0.01) of plastic surgeons routinely perform a less than optimal procedure on their patients who smoke. The survey measured willingness to perform various operative procedures on patients who smoke and types of smoking cessation aids offered. Of those physicians who require patients to quit smoking before surgery, only 16.7 percent (p < 0.01) would perform a nicotine test if they suspected noncompliance. Interestingly, 28.6 percent (p < 0.01) of the physicians responding admit to a smoking history, whereas only 1.5 percent (p < 0.01) continue to smoke, compared with the national smoking rate of almost 25 percent. Physicians who are previous smokers are less likely to offer smoking cessation aids than those who have never smoked, and the proportion not offering aids increases as the amount of previous smoking increases (p = 0.02). This study shows that a wide range of opinions exists on which elective surgical procedures should be performed on patients who smoke. Furthermore, the physician's prior smoking history influences this decision. No clear consensus exists on how best to treat patients who smoke who request elective surgeries. Although surgeons would prefer to operate on nonsmokers, they are faced with a significant population of patients who use tobacco. No clear consensus exists on how best to treat these individuals. Advancements in wound healing research and smoking cessation aids will provide more insight into this treatment dilemma.     

Adolescent Medicine: Attitudes,Training, and Experience Of Pediatric,Family Medicine,and Obstetric-Gynecology Residents

Purpose: Several studies have documented a deficiency in the delivery of preventive services to adolescents during physician visits in the United States. This study sought to assess and compare pediatric, family medicine (FM), and obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN) resident perceptions of their responsibility, training, and experience with providing comprehensive health care services to adolescents.Methods: A 57-item, close-ended survey was designed and administered to assess resident perceptions of the scope of their practice, training, and experience with providing adolescent health care across a series of health care categories.Results: Of the 87 respondents (31 OB/GYN, 29 FM, and 27 pediatric), most residents from all three fields felt that the full range of adolescent preventive and clinical services represented in the survey fell under their scope of practice. Residents from all three fields need more training and experience with mental health issues, referring teenagers to substance abuse treatment programs, and addressing physical and sexual abuse. In addition, OB-GYN residents reported deficiencies in training and experience regarding several preventive counseling and general health services, while pediatric residents reported deficiencies in training and experience regarding sexual health services.Conclusions: Our results indicate that at this time, residents from these three specialties are not optimally prepared to provide the full range of recommended preventive and clinical services to adolescents.     

Cosmetic surgery in times of recession: macroeconomics for plastic surgeons

Periods of economic downturn place special demands on the plastic surgeon whose practice involves a large amount of cosmetic surgery. When determining strategy during difficult economic times, it is useful to understand the macroeconomic background of these downturns and to draw lessons from businesses in other service industries. Business cycles and monetary policy determine the overall environment in which plastic surgery is practiced. Plastic surgeons can take both defensive and proactive steps to maintain their profits during recessions and to prepare for the inevitable upturn. Care should also be taken when selecting pricing strategy during economic slowdowns.     

Establishing a multidisciplinary academic cosmetic center

The demand for cosmetic services has risen rapidly in recent years, but has slowed down with the current economic downturn. Managed care organizations and Medicare have been steadily reducing their reimbursements for physician services. The payment for reconstructive surgical procedures has been decreasing and is likely to worsen with healthcare reform, and many plastic surgery residency programs are facing fiscal challenges. An adequate volume of patients needing cosmetic services is necessary to recruit and train the best candidates to the residency programs. Self-pay patients will help ensure the fiscal viability of plastic surgery residency programs. Attracting patients to an academic healthcare center will become more difficult in a recession without the appropriate facilities, programs, and pricing strategies. Setting up a modern cosmetic services program at an academic center has some unique challenges, including funding, academic politics, and turf. The authors opened a free-standing academic multidisciplinary center at their medical school 3 years ago. The center is an off-site, 13,000-sq ft facility that includes faculty from plastic surgery, ear, nose, and throat, dermatology, and vascular surgery. In this article, the authors discuss the process of developing and executing a plan for starting an aesthetic services center in an academic setting. The financing of the center and factors in pricing services are discussed. The authors show the impact of the center on their cosmetic surgery patient volumes, resident education, and finances. They expect that their experience will be helpful to other plastic surgery programs at academic medical centers.     

Benchmarking academic plastic surgery services in the United States

Rising health care costs and increasingly demanding patients are only some of the challenges faced by academic plastic surgery services in their pursuit of excellence in education, research, and patient care. Benchmarking, when correctly applied, is a powerful tool that can help services learn from each other's experiences. This study aimed at creating the first benchmarking report summarizing performance indicators and management practices of some of the most complete academic plastic surgery units in the United States. Results provide an opportunity for plastic surgery leaders to benchmark against their own units, identify eventual gaps, and improve their performance as needed.     

Training for fitness: reconsidering the 80-hour work week

The medical literature is replete with articles about the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education's 2003 resident duty hour restrictions. Most of these papers describe creative and thoughtful responses to the new system. However, others express concern that the "80-hour work week" could hamper continuity of care and educational activities. Nevertheless, if fatigue impairs resident learning and medical care quality, then work hour restrictions seem worthwhile. We add our voices to the critics' for additional reasons. Data support that fatigue occurs even with reasonable work schedules, and residents do not reliably use time off from work to rest. Regulated work schedules can interfere with adequate rehearsal of the physical and mental stamina required in certain specialties, yet patients have a right to expect their physicians to be trained in the particular demands of those specialties. Similarly, residents have a right to a realistic understanding of authentic clinical practice. Further, while self-sacrifice need not be routine, trainees should feel that occasional self-sacrifice is appropriate and acceptable for a physician. We reject uniform, arbitrary duty hour limits for all specialties. Rather, we propose that a subspecialty-based system can foster the development of the endurance, skills, and reasoning that patients and colleagues expect.     

Effect of a Diabetes Curriculum on Internal Medicine Resident Knowledge

ObjectiveTo determine the effect of a year-long, multifaceted diabetes curriculum on the knowledge of internal medicine residents.MethodsIn this controlled, prospective study, diabetes knowledge assessment was performed with a published questionnaire to measure baseline knowledge, determine change in knowledge at 1 year, and compare resident knowledge with attending knowledge. The questionnaire was administered to residents at the beginning and end of the 2007-2008 academic year. As controls, internal medicine attendings and diabetes care providers were also given the questionnaire. The educational curriculum over the course of the year included order sets, pocket cards, lectures, and rounds. Although all residents were exposed to the education intervention, teaching targeted the postgraduate year (PGY)-1 residents.ResultsOf 91 participating residents, 85 (93%) completed at least 1 questionnaire for a total of 103 questionnaires. Baseline and year-end assessments were completed by 18 residents. Among 25 attendings, 22 (88%) completed questionnaires. Eleven diabetes care providers participated. PGY-3 residents scored 72 ± 10% and PGY-2 residents scored 72 ± 8%, which was significantly greater than the PGY-1 residents’ score of 62 ± 12% (P = .004 and P = .006, respectively). Lectures were associated with knowledge improvement over time (P = .04). The mean attending score of 67 ± 13% was not significantly different from the residents’ scores. Diabetes care providers had the highest score (92 ± 7%).ConclusionsInpatient diabetes education targeted to PGY-1 residents modestly improves resident knowledge, especially in the targeted population. Traditional educational methods may not be adequate, and improved education is needed for trainees and attendings to provide optimal diabetes care. Strategies to improve resident education may include developing more comprehensive lectures that address fundamental concepts, focusing on all PGY levels, frequent consultation with diabetologists, and case-based discussions. (Endocr Pract. 2010;16:408-417)     

Reconstructive breast surgery: referring physician knowledge and learning needs

Despite the positive impact that reconstructive breast surgery can have on a woman's quality of life, the percentage of eligible candidates that have this procedure remains surprisingly low. The authors hypothesized that this may be attributable to inadequate knowledge, inadequate information, and/or misinformation available to physicians caring for these patients. A needs assessment of primary care physicians, general surgeons, oncologists, and plastic surgeons was conducted to determine referring physicians' current level of knowledge of reconstructive breast surgery and to discover potential learning needs. This comprised a survey, focus groups, and individual interviews. Referring physicians rated their own knowledge of reconstructive breast surgery as low. Plastic surgeons rated their referring physicians' knowledge as even lower. Specific learning needs were identified, as large discrepancies between referring physicians' self-reported knowledge of individual breast reconstruction topics and their own opinion of their relevance were revealed. In addition, despite evidence to the contrary, more than one-third of referring physicians indicated a belief that a breast reconstruction delayed the detection of local cancer recurrence and adversely interfered with adjuvant oncologic therapy. This lack of knowledge and misinformation may be negatively affecting patient referrals to plastic surgeons, as more than one-third of referring physicians and 90 percent of plastic surgeons believed that eligible candidates were not being offered referrals because of inadequate referring physician knowledge of this topic. Furthermore, patients older than 49 years were not being referred despite the fact that plastic surgeons would consider these patients as potential surgical candidates. Referring physician gender affected both referral patterns and perceived importance of reconstructive breast surgery. Finally, personal beliefs and past experiences played a role both in physicians' decisions to refer patients and in patients' decisions to have breast reconstructions. These deficiencies in information, knowledge, and learning needs should be addressed by educational interventions during residency training and through continuing education endeavors.