Update on Outcomes of a Novel Pathway for Thoracic Surgery Training.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The Joint Surgery-Thoracic Surgery (JS-TS) pathway began as a pilot program to grant both general surgery (GS) residency and thoracic surgery (TS) fellowship credit for 12 months of the PGY-4 and 5 years. This review updates the outcomes of this novel program. STUDY DESIGN: GS and TS programs in all approved JS-TS institutions were contacted for data collection, including JS-TS enrollee demographics and GS and TS case logs (CLs). National GS and TS CL data, and program and institutional data were publicly available. Enrollee case numbers were compared with those of their contemporaries. The American Board of Surgery and American Board of Thoracic Surgery provided certification data. Only enrollees who completed GS through 2019 were included. RESULTS: There were 90 JS-TS enrollees in 14 institutions. Two enrollees withdrew and 1 had not completed TS at the time of data collection leaving 87 for analysis. GS CLs were available for all 87 enrollees. TS CLs were available for all 62 enrollees who completed fellowship in 2016 or later. In GS, enrollees recorded fewer cases than their contemporary PGY-5s nationally in all domains except thoracic and endocrine. In TS, mean enrollee case numbers exceeded those of national contemporaries in every major category. Sixty-two JS-TS enrollees have achieved American Board of Surgery certification. Eighty-two enrollees are American Board of Thoracic Surgery certified with 5 currently in the certification process. CONCLUSIONS: The JS-TS pathway has proven a successful alternative route for TS training and could be a blueprint for other specialties considering novel avenues to specialty training.