What Can You Learn About Psychiatry Programs from Their Website? A Content Evaluation for Potential Applicants.

OBJECTIVE: This project aimed to assess the information contained on general psychiatry program websites and identify common themes that may be useful and informative for residency applicants. METHODS: A survey study design was used to evaluate all US general psychiatry program websites as listed in the FREIDA database. The evaluation form included 44 binary (yes or no) items. Two reviewers rated each item on all program websites between September 2021 and January 2022. Item discrepancies were settled by a third reviewer. Fisher's exact tests evaluated differences between geographic regions and program types. Multidimensional scaling and Rasch modeling were conducted to examine clustering and the probability of items reported on program websites. RESULTS: A total of 285 websites were identified; 13 were excluded. Internal consistency was high among reviewers, Cronbach's Alpha = 0.927; κ = 0.863. Websites varied considerably in quality. Significant inconsistent reporting was observed by region for current residents' photos and alumni careers (fellowship/jobs); p<0.001. Program types varied regarding information about program faculty, which included significant differences for faculty photo, faculty research interest, and faculty research publications; p<0.001. CONCLUSIONS: While inter-rater reliability was high, considerable variation among websites was observed. Residency programs could be improved by consistently reporting resident and faculty information. Results show that applicants may encounter issues finding pertinent information, as programs' FREIDA link did not direct the user to the residency program website two-thirds of the time.

Provocative test occlusion or the Matas test: who was Rudolph Matas?

Temporary occlusion of large vessels (the Matas test) to test the adequacy of collateral circulation is part of daily clinical practice. Nevertheless, only a few clinicians are aware of Rudolph Matas and his pioneering work in different fields of medicine. A legendary New Orleans surgeon, Rudolph Matas (1860-1957) lived nearly a century. During that time he witnessed enormous progress in medicine and greatly contributed to its evolution. He is unanimously recognized as the father of modem vascular surgery for his creation and popularization of aneurysmorrhaphy, a technique for the definitive treatment of aortic and peripheral aneurysms. He also made significant contributions to the then burgeoning fields of anesthesia, critical care, and infectious disease (yellow fever in particular). In 1911, he wrote a landmark article in which he described a challenge test to assess the degree and efficacy of the collateral circulation in patients under consideration for permanent occlusion of a major vessel. Matas studied the feasibility of such a test by temporarily occluding the carotid and femoral arteries in dogs for variable periods of time. In the introduction to his seminal article on the subject, he stated that "the chief object of this inquiry has been to determine whether the large arteries can be occluded long enough to make it possible to observe the effect of the arrested circulation in the territory supplied by the occluded vessel, without irreparably damaging the artery during the period of observation." He definitively achieved his stated goal: the Matas test, although greatly modified by contemporary endovascular techniques to be safer and more reliable, is in essence still routinely performed worldwide 90 years after its initial description.