The Journal of surgical research
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A comprehensive exposure to general surgery is essential for medical students pursuing careers in surgery. Occasionally, students applying for surgical residency positions must choose a subspecialty field prior to starting their residency training. Often, this decision is heavily based on their experience on various surgical clerkships. ⋯ While medical students pursuing careers in surgery have equal exposure to general surgery, their anticipated subspecialty field highly correlated with their operative exposure to that field. Thus, medical school surgical rotations appear to highly influence subspecialty choice.
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In this era of limited medical resources there is ever increasing pressure to lower costs, while preserving high-quality patient care. A dedicated craniofacial and skull base trauma team (SBT) was established at our Level I trauma center in July 1998. Previously, a rotating call panel of multiple private surgical subspecialists consulted on trauma patients with craniofacial or skull base injuries (Pre-SBT). This study was designed to assess the impact a dedicated craniofacial and skull base trauma team has on the cost and quality of patient care. ⋯ The addition of a dedicated craniofacial trauma team to a Level I trauma center provides more comprehensive care, improves efficiency, and reduces cost.
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Comparative Study
Comparison of performance 2 years after the old and new (interactive) ATLS courses.
We previously (1997) demonstrated superior clinical but similar cognitive performance after the new interactive compared to the old ATLS course. The present study is aimed at determining whether this difference was short term or maintained over time (2 years). ⋯ Although knowledge base decreases similarly with time after both courses, the new interactive course participants maintained a consistently higher clinical skill performance level at 2 years.