Surgical Education Week 2019

April is always a busy time of year in the surgical education research world, which makes it an exciting month for the Department of Surgery’s Center for Surgical Training and Research (C-STAR). This April, the annual Surgical Education Week conference was held in downtown Chicago, and representatives from C-STAR had a large presence:

• C-STAR Board Chair Gurjit Sandhu gave a podium presentation on her work intraoperative trust between faculty and residents.
• Medical student Ken Abbott gave a podium presentation on his work in applying generalizability theory to assessment data.
• C-STAR Director Brian George spoke on a panel presentation about using big data for education and patient outcomes.
• Incoming C-STAR Research Fellow Dan Kendrick gave a poster session about his research on the feasibility of workplace-based assessment for ICU learners.
• Medical student Lynze Franko gave a poster presentation of her research on the impact, interactions, and opportunities between integrated and traditional cardiothoracic training programs.
• Medical student Adrienne Jarocki gave a poster presentation of her research comparing learner and expert thoracic surgeon scores from robotic simulation exercises.
• C-STAR Director of Social Research, Hoda Bandeh-Ahmadi led a presentation on the Michigan-led multi-site Variability in Trainee Autonomy and Learning in Surgery (VITALS) Trial.

A lot of behind-the-scenes effort went in to making this a productive conference. Prior to heading to Chicago, C-STAR hosted several workshops to help everyone from Michigan who was scheduled to present at Surgical Education Week. At the workshops, presenters rehearsed their research presentations and received feedback from a diverse audience on a range of topics: how to focus on the most impactful results, knowing the audience, slide layout, delivery, and more.

We all look forward to our next opportunities to share our collaborative work on a national level. C-STAR research workshops are open to everyone, and happen every 2^nd and 4^th Thursday of each month at 10am in room 2131 Taubman Center. C-STAR readily welcomes new members and collaborators, so if there is any way C-STAR can help improve your research, please reach out to us at [email protected].

Article by Greg Wnuk, MHSA