EDUCATION/TRAINING
Resident and Fellow Training (RAFT)
SAGES RAFT committee supports resident and fellow training by:
- Developing and maintaining high-quality curricula based on sound educational principles.
- Creating standards and criteria for program accreditation and trainee certification.
- Fostering the professional development and mentorship of learners.
RAFT initiatives include well-attended resident webinars, training-related research and scholarly activity, and collaboration with the Fellowship Council and other surgical societies on accreditation criteria, curriculum development, and fellows certification for Advanced GI MIS, Comprehensive Flexible Endoscopy, Foregut, Hernia and Colorectal fellowships.
ADOPT
The SAGES Acquisition of Data for Outcomes and Procedure Transfer (ADOPT) program is focused on developing educational activities that result in successful procedural adoption using four components:
- Faculty development (Train the Trainer Course)
- Learner centeredness
- Longitudinal mentorship
- Community of practice
Every ADOPT course consists of: a) pre-course educational materials, b) pre-course survey, c) in-person hands-on course, d) ongoing mentorship via email/text/phone, e) monthly webinars hosted by SAGES faculty, and f) additional surveys at intervals. When outcomes of the 2015-2020 courses were studied, 77% of respondents reported making changes to their practice since taking the course and cited changes in their surgical approach, technique, confidence, and willingness to take on more complex cases.
Train the Trainer
Empowering surgeons to be better teachers in the OR, the TT course includes interactive scenarios, facilitated discussions, and practical training sessions. Participants are better able to provide a structured teaching experience and performance-enhancing feedback to their learners, which can aid in difficult situations. These small (6 person) courses are highly interactive, making them much more impactful. 100% of participants of the 4 courses offered in 2023 indicated they would implement their take-home points in their practice and would apply the teaching structure to future teaching cases.
Masters Program
The SAGES Masters Program is an asynchronous, online learning program that will enhance our educational content and activities. With nine eventual areas of focus (Acute Care, Bariatric, Biliary, Colorectal, Flex Endo, Foregut, Hernia, Liver, and Pancreas), the program will consist of interactive modules, self-assessments, and reference materials curated from SAGES’ extensive content library. Learners will achieve certificates in the content areas and CME credit. The Masters Program will be a particularly powerful resource for Candidate members (residents/fellows) nearing the end of their training, early career surgeons, rural surgeons, and international surgeons to complement their training curriculum or because geography makes access to in-person continuing education difficult.
Video Based Assessments (VBA)
SAGES is developing a series of robust, psychometrically sound video-based assessment (VBA) tools to measure competency for laparoscopic cholecystectomies, minimally invasive (MIS) right hemicolectomies, and other procedures modeled on our innovative laparoscopic fundoplication VBA.
Capturing clinical ability in the operating room without decreasing intraoperative efficiency is a priority for time-pressed surgeons, ORs, and hospital training programs. As a procedure-specific training tool, VBAs offer several advantages over direct observations of clinical performance in terms of objectivity, time-efficiency, and feasibility.
INNOVATION/RESEARCH
SAGES Research Awards are open to any principal investigator who is a current SAGES member, including Candidate Members. Over the years, applications for SAGES research grant awards have more than doubled. Grant categories include: AI, DEI, Robotics, Sustainability (in the OR), and General MIS surgery.
Research Data Network
NEW: SAGES Research Data Network (RDN) is a unique platform allowing researchers from various institutions access to industry funded and investigator initiated clinical trials that will:
- Provide an opportunity for surgeons to participate in new clinical trials
- Allow surgeon-investigators to identify interested groups of surgeons and sites for participation in their studies
- Allow industry partners to identify interested groups of surgeons and sites for participation in their studies
- Promote diversity of patient populations and make explicit efforts to better represent minorities in surgical trials.
Surgical Data Science (SDS)
SDS aims to foster data frameworks, academic activities and IT systems that support and grow SAGES ability to improve patient care through the emerging research field of surgical data science. SAGES SDS Task Force is currently focused on:
- Finding and deploying an IT system to support SAGES Video Based Assessment (VBA)
- Developing a data governance framework for clinical data registries that will provide committees with consistent business rules for starting and joining a SAGES registry, using registry data for quality improvement projects, publishing papers, and recognizing the society in published work
- Academic activities and white papers that explore surgical data sciences role in improving patient care
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
The AI Task Force aims to educate SAGES members about AI and its implications for their clinical practices, research, and education, while improving patient care and augmenting surgeons’ cognitive capabilities and operative experience. Current focus includes:
- AI Summits (at SAGES NBT Innovation Weekend) – Video Annotation, Surgical Video Data Governance, Regulations, Policies and Oversight
- Critical View of Safety (CVS) Challenge (https://www.cvschallenge.org) – a large, annotated, diverse dataset of laparoscopic cholecystectomy videos that will enable international computer science teams to develop AI capable of accurate and sensitive detection of the CVS
LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
Fundamentals of Leadership Development
Developed with support from the American College of Surgeons, the course is intended for surgeons just starting in a leadership role and those who envision a future leadership role. The curriculum objectives below focus on leadership style, strength and ‘areas under development,’ caring for diverse patient populations and negotiations for change.
- Discuss why Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) is integral to surgical leadership
- Apply and integrate principles of DEI into team and leadership dynamics
- Create diversity in surgical leadership and opportunities for URiM in Surgery
- Describe factors contributing healthcare equity in surgical healthcare systems
- Use negotiation strategies/conflict mediation to address common DEI issues
GLOBAL
The SAGES Global Laparoscopic Advancement Program (GLAP) program has brought together 240 surgeon educators, surgeon learners and surgeon communities in Mexico, Costa Rica, Namibia and Ethiopia (El Salvador & Uganda coming in 2024). Through the multimodal design of the GLAP program, participants begin as virtual learners, develop as educators via on site coaching and complete the program as partners in the journey to safe laparoscopy and education. This foundational program equips surgeon educators to lead the country towards sustainable laparoscopic education through the development of local simulation hubs, Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery (FLS) preparation and expansion of local laparoscopic capacity.
SUSTAINABILITY
This joint task force between the European Association for Endoscopic Surgery (EAES) and SAGES demonstrates a commitment to confront the multifaceted issue of climate change, particularly in the domain of minimally invasive surgery (MIS). The mission identifies the under-recognized contribution of surgical and MIS practices to healthcare’s carbon footprint, and outlines a systematic approach:
- Establishing evidence-based metrics to measure environmental impact.
- Promoting interdisciplinary collaborations to solidify standardized metrics.
- Empowering the surgical community with best practices to lessen the carbon footprint.
- Establishing strategic research partnerships to curate sustainable surgical initiatives.
- Launching the “(OR) Green Team” initiative to drive institutional cultural transformation
ADVOCACY
Top of mind for SAGES Advocacy and Health Policy Committee (AHP) is continuing to advocate against proposed Medicaid cuts to surgeons and promoting reimbursement equity among employed and private practice physicians. The committee collaborates with other surgical societies through CPT and RUC on issues that affect reimbursement and surgical safety for both surgeons and patients. AHP leadership continues to stress the importance of membership outreach to local Congressional representatives and society representation in the AMA.