Breast Reconstruction Trainee Assessment

Is there a checklist that can be used along with operating room supervision to assess how well a breast cancer surgeon performs a particular procedure?

Maisam Fazel, FRCS, MS, MB BChir, of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in the United Kingdom, believes it is not only desirable but also possible to shift surgical training toward a competency-based approach. His research on developing an assessment tool for latissimus dorsi breast reconstruction (LDBR) surgery was among the top-scoring abstracts at the Miami Breast Cancer Conference.

Fazel adapted the Objective Structured Assessment of Technical Skill tool used in the UK surgical curriculum to LDBR, creating categories specific to the procedure. He then used the tool to assess 15 breast reconstruction trainees, who were divided into 3 groups of 5 trainees each based on 2, 4, and 7 years of postinternship experience, respectively.

The assessment tool “was able to significantly discriminate between trainees of different seniority,” with more experienced trainees performing better than those with less seniority.

In this podcast, Fazel discusses his research.