American journal of surgery
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The growing appreciation of the need to adopt an evidence-based approach to teaching and assessment has led to a demand for faculty who are well versed in best practices in education. Surgeons with interest and expertise in instruction, curriculum development, educational research, and evaluation can have an important impact on the educational mission of a department of surgery. The increased fervor for accountability in education together with the challenges imposed by accreditation agencies and hospitals has made educational leadership responsibilities more time consuming and complex. In response to this, an increasing number of department chairs created Vice Chair for Education positions to support clerkship and program directors and ensure the department's education mission statement is fulfilled.
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Academic surgeons play an instrumental role in the training of our medical students and surgical residents. Although volunteer faculty often have an important role in the clinical development of surgeons-in-training, the tasks of curricular development, structured didactic sessions, professional advising, research sponsorship, and mentoring at all levels fall to the academic surgeon. Historically, the career advancement path for an academic physician favored grant acquisition and scholarly publication. Broader definitions of scholarship have emerged, along with corresponding modifications in academic award systems that allow advancement in faculty rank based on a surgeon's educational efforts.
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Surgical training programs are now including simulators as training tools for teaching laparoscopic surgery. The aim of this study was to develop a standardized, graduated, and evidence-based curriculum for the newly developed D-box (D-box Medical, Lier, Norway) for training basic laparoscopic skills. ⋯ Benchmark criteria and an evidence-based curriculum have been developed for the D-box. The curriculum is aimed at training and assessing surgical novices in basic laparoscopic skills.
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Comparative Study
The outcome after stent placement or surgery as the initial treatment for obstructive primary tumor in patients with stage IV colon cancer.
It is still a matter of debate as to whether palliative resection of obstructive primary tumors may prolong the survival of patients with obstructive colon cancer and unresectable synchronous metastases. The main goal of this retrospective study was to compare the use of self-expanding metallic stents (SEMS) with open surgery for the palliation of patients with respect to survival, morbidity, and the time to start chemotherapy. ⋯ Both procedures can be safely performed, but the choice of treatment should be individualized and discussed with a multidisciplinary team.