Ten years of IRCAD, Barretos, SP, Brazil

Minimally invasive surgery represented a significant milestone in modern surgery; however, continuous innovation and the emergence of new technologies pose new challenges in terms of surgical learning curves since new interventions are associated with increased surgical complexity and a higher risk of complications. For this reason, surgeons are aware of the beneficial effects of "learning before doing" and the importance of safely implementing new surgical procedures in order to obtain better patient outcomes. Considered the largest Latin American training center in minimally invasive surgery, IRCAD Barretos, São Paulo, Brazil, makes it possible to acquire surgical skills through training in different and the most complex areas of medicine, providing the experience of real and simulated situations, with focus on innovation. The center possesses state-of-the-art infrastructure and technology, with a very high-level teaching staff and an affectionate and hospitable reception. Since its inauguration, in 2011, the center has already qualified numerous professionals and has placed the country in a privileged position in terms of surgical knowledge. The present article describes the activities developed over these ten years of the institute in Brazil as the largest training center for surgeons of the continent in order to address the importance of surgical skills training.

The SAGES Fundamental Use of Surgical Energy program (FUSE): history, development, and purpose.

BACKGROUND: Adverse events due to energy device use in surgical operating rooms are a daily occurrence. These occur at a rate of approximately 1-2 per 1000 operations. Hundreds of operating room fires occur each year in the United States, some causing severe injury and even mortality. The Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES) therefore created the first comprehensive educational curriculum on the safe use of surgical energy devices, called Fundamental Use of Surgical Energy (FUSE). This paper describes the history, development, and purpose of this important training program for all members of the operating room team. METHODS: The databases of SAGES and the FUSE committee as well as personal photographs and documents of members of the FUSE task force were used to establish a brief history of the FUSE program from its inception to its current status. RESULTS: The authors were able to detail all aspects of the history, development, and national as well as global implementation of the third SAGES Fundamentals Program FUSE. CONCLUSIONS: The written documentation of the making of FUSE is an important contribution to the history and mission of SAGES and allows the reader to understand the idea, concept, realization, and implementation of the only free online educational tool for physicians on energy devices available today. FUSE is the culmination of the SAGES efforts to recognize gaps in patient safety and develop state-of-the-art educational programs to address those gaps. It is the goal of the FUSE task force to ensure that general FUSE implementation becomes multinational, involving as many countries as possible.

The Evolution of the Journal Club: From Osler to Twitter.

Journal clubs have typically been held within the walls of academic institutions and in medicine have served the dual purpose of fostering critical appraisal of literature and disseminating new findings. In the last decade and especially the last few years, online and virtual journal clubs have been started and are flourishing, especially those harnessing the advantages of social media tools and customs. This article reviews the history and recent innovations of journal clubs. In addition, the authors describe their experience developing and implementing NephJC, an online nephrology journal club conducted on Twitter.

Family medicine training and practice in Malawi: History, progress, and the anticipated role of the family physician in the Malawian health system.

This article analyses the development and implementation of family medicine training and practice in Malawi, with special attention given to its current status and the projected role the trained family physician will be expected to play in the future. The general aim of the paper is to briefly review the role of family physicians in rural areas, as well as to discuss the history of family medicine training in Malawi. The idea of formal family medicine training and practice in Malawi started as early as 2001 but did not come to fruition until 2011, with the start of the undergraduate clerkship in the fourth year of medical school at the University Of Malawi College Of Medicine. This energy was followed by the launch of a postgraduate training programme in early 2015. The challenges encountered in this endeavour are also reviewed. The paper concludes by discussing the expected role a Malawian family physician will play in the local context, considering the key roles that family physicians play elsewhere in Africa.

Changes to postgraduate medical education in the 21st century.

Medicine is a constantly evolving profession, especially with the advent of rapid advances in the scientific base that underpins this vocation. In order to ensure that training in medicine is contemporary with the continuous evolution of the profession, there has been a multitude of changes to postgraduate medical education, particularly in the UK. This article aims to provide an overview of relevant key changes to postgraduate medical education in the UK during the 21st century, including changes to the structure, governance and commissioning of medical education, effects of European Working Time Directive on training, recent recommendations in the Future Hospital Commission report and Shape of training report, and recent requirements for accreditation of medical education trainers. Many of these recommendations will require complex discussions often at organisational levels, hopefully with some realistic and pragmatic solutions for implementation.

Lead, Follow, or Get out of the Way-How Bold Young Surgeons Brought Vascular Surgery into Clinical Practice from the Korean War Battlefield.

The maturation of vascular surgery into widespread clinical practice was accelerated by events that took place in Korea during the conflict of 1950-1953. Early research and anecdotal clinical trials were just then resulting in publication of cases of the successful vascular repairs and replacements. Noncrushing vascular clamps were being developed and limited manufacture begun. The stage was set for a major advance in the treatment of arterial injury, just as war commenced in Korea, which provided a clinical laboratory. When the war on the Korean Peninsula erupted in June 1950, the policy of the Army Medical department was to ligate all arterial injuries unless a simple transverse or end-to-end anastomosis could be performed, and repair was "contrary to policy and orders." Despite pressure and threats of "courts martial for vascular repairs" from the senior military medicine leaders-clinical experiments in arterial repair were carried out at Mobile Army Surgical Hospital facilities at battlefield locations across Korea. The young surgeons, mostly draftees and reservists, resisted rigid doctrine and orders to desist, and in the face of threatened punishment, were committed to do the right thing, and ultimately went on to change military medicine and vascular surgery. The "on-the-job" training in vascular surgery that was carried out in Korea by military surgeons who demonstrated substantially higher limb salvage rates energized the field from the battlefield laboratory. Many wounded soldiers had limbs saved by the new techniques in vascular repair pioneered by surgeons in the Korean War, and countless thousands who entered civilian hospitals for emergency vascular surgery in subsequent years also ultimately benefited from their work.

Venereology at the polyclinic: postgraduate medical education among general practitioners in England, 1899-1914.

In 1899 the British Medical Journal enthusiastically announced that a new postgraduate teaching college was to open in London. The aim of the Medical Graduates' College and Polyclinic (MGC) was to provide continuing education to general practitioners. It drew upon emerging specialisms and in so doing built upon the generalist training received at an undergraduate level. Courses were intended to refresh knowledge and to introduce general practitioners to new knowledge claims and clinical practices. The establishment of postgraduate institutions such as the MGC marked an important stage in the development of medical education in England. Yet these institutions, and the emergence of postgraduate medical education more broadly, have been largely overlooked by historians. Moreover the history of venereological training among medical undergraduates and postgraduates alike has been overlooked. The study of such special subjects characterised postgraduate study. This article examines the dissemination of venereological knowledge among subscribers to MGC as an important case study for the development of institutionalised postgraduate medical education in England at the turn of the twentieth century.

Ärztliches Fortbildungswesen in Deutschland 1871-1945.

The discussion on systematization and methodology combined with the question of state interference and professional political interests accompanies the beginning of Continuing Medical Education (CME) until today. The development of CME for the period 1871 to 1945 shows a process of systematization regarding organizational, administrational and structural level with participation of government and medical professional policies. In the time of the German Empire the foundation for a structured CME was created by establishing a system of charge free and decentralized training courses. For the first time, thought was given to distinguish different types of medical education. During the period of the Weimar Republic the structure of decentralized CME was supported by developing new teaching and learning methods. The medical professional representatives refused any state participation except financial assistance. In the Nazi era CME was brought into line of Nazi ideology concerning structure, organization and administration. CME obligations were mandatory for all physicians and trained them on Nazi ideology especially. CME as a lifelong process centrally guided in combination with decentralized structures is an appropriate way for offering training to all physicians. State support is important and necessary, but shaping the contents should be a duty of the professional associations of Physicians. The quality of patient care is no longer complied as soon as the aspect of cost-efficiency is transformed into a pressure factor concerning political interests and social insurance.