Journal of the American College of Surgeons
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Does Adding a Measure of Social Vulnerability to a Surgical Risk Calculator Improve Its Performance?
Emerging literature suggests that measures of social vulnerability should be incorporated into surgical risk calculators. The Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) is a measure designed by the CDC that encompasses 15 socioeconomic and demographic variables at the census tract level. We examined whether adding the SVI into a parsimonious surgical risk calculator would improve model performance. ⋯ The eight-variable SURPAS prediction model was not significantly improved by adding the SVI, showing that this parsimonious tool functions well without including a measure of social vulnerability.
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In 2012, a systematic review reported on factors influencing female medical students, career intentions for surgery. This current review is a direct follow-up of that article with the aim of assessing whether factors affecting female medical student career choices have changed over the last decade. This review has identified access to research opportunities as a new factor that can be used to promote female medical student and trainee interest in surgery. Other factors have largely remained unchanged over the last 10 years, such as lack of access to leave, part-time work, and same-gender role models.