Racial and ethnic disparities in access to minimally invasive gynecologic surgery for benign pathology.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: To review current US literature and describe the extent, source, and impact of disparities that exist among Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) in surgical route and outcomes for hysterectomy, myomectomy, and endometriosis surgery. RECENT FINDINGS: Despite the nationwide trend toward minimally invasive surgery (MIS), BIPOC women are disproportionally less likely to undergo MIS hysterectomy and myomectomy and have higher rates of perioperative complications. African American women, in particular, receive significantly disparate care. Contemporary literature on the prevalence of endometriosis in BIPOC women is lacking. Further, there is little data on the racial and ethnic differences in endometriosis surgery access and outcomes. SUMMARY: Racial and ethnic disparities in access to minimally invasive gynecologic surgery for benign pathology exist and these differences are not fully accounted for by patient, socioeconomic, or healthcare infrastructure factors. Initiatives that incentivize hiring surgeons trained to perform complex gynecologic surgery, standardized pathways for route of surgery, quality improvement focused on increased hospital MIS volume, and hospital-based public reporting of MIS volume data may be of benefit for minimizing disparities. Further, initiatives to reduce disparities need to address racism, implicit bias, and healthcare structural issues that perpetuate disparities.

Mistreatment and the Learning Environment: A Mixed Methods Approach to Assess Knowledge and Raise Awareness Amongst Residents.

OBJECTIVE: Trainee mistreatment, either intentional or unintentional, negatively affects the learning environment. This study was undertaken to evaluate the impact of an educational intervention about mistreatment and the learning environment on general surgery residents. DESIGN: Video-based modules were developed and added to the residency curriculum. Modules provided definitions and examples of active and passive mistreatment and components of positive and negative learning environments. A mixed-methods approach was used to assess the impact of this intervention. Residents completed a previously validated pre and post-test of related knowledge and attitudes (Abuse Sensitivity Questionnaire). Wilcoxon Signed Rank test was used to compare test results. During video-review sessions, discussion was prompted amongst residents using a semistructured interview guide. Immersion crystallization method was used to identify dominant themes. SETTING: Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, an academic tertiary care facility located in Boston, Massachusetts. PARTICIPANTS: All general surgery residents in our institution (n = 58) were invited to complete a survey at 3 time points. RESULTS: Fifty-eight residents (55% male) responded to the survey (100% response rate). Mean age was 30.2 year (SD 3.9). Perception of nicknames related to personal identifiers (p = 0.0065) and name-calling (p = 0.02) changed significantly postintervention (Table 1). Regarding standards of behavior, 42 (72.4%) residents considered yelling not to be abusive unless it occurred frequently or constantly; 15 (25.8%) residents considered swearing (not directed at a person) as "not abuse"; 6 (10.3%) considered constructive criticism to be abusive if it was frequent or constant; and 24 (41%) residents feel powerless to intervene in these scenarios. Multiple themes emerged regarding resident-student interactions: (1) resident perception that description of behavior as mistreatment depends on medical student sensitivity; (2) neglect of medical students avoids trouble (e.g., being labeled as active mistreatment); (3) failure to integrate students into the surgical team may occur due to perceived lack of student interest; and (4) communication with the medical student is key. Residents reported that discussion along with video review was more effective than video review alone. CONCLUSIONS: The video-based curriculum on mistreatment and the learning environment created awareness amongst residents about this important topic. Knowledge and attitudes about mistreatment changed in some areas postintervention. These findings suggest a need for development of complementary curricula to improve resident awareness and understanding of components of a positive learning environment and definition/examples of mistreatment.

The Adverse Outcome Index: Putting Quality Into an Outcome Measure.

The Adverse Outcome Index, originally designed to provide an objective inventory of adverse outcomes, is often promoted as a tool for assessing the quality of inpatient obstetric care. Although the Adverse Outcome Index is well described, and its outcomes are easy to collect, it has notable drawbacks such as "paradoxical measures" (eg, blood transfusions are counted as adverse measures even when they are used appropriately) and the dominance of certain measures within the Adverse Outcome Index that can drive scores (eg, neonatal intensive care unit admissions). In this article, we argue that in addition to the limitations noted, the Adverse Outcome Index, although providing a reasonable measure of inpatient obstetric acuity, fails to be a reliable measure of quality. This is particularly important because many organizations are seeking quality measures and the Adverse Outcome Index may become a candidate tool. We believe that introducing an adjudication process to the Adverse Outcome Index would greatly enhance its role as a quality indicator. Until newly proposed quality measures are perfected and adopted, a quality-adjusted Adverse Outcome Index will allow this widely used measure to provide a more reliable determination of those adverse events potentially amenable to performance improvement.

Surgical Practical Skills Learning Curriculum: Implementation and Interns' Confidence Perceptions.

OBJECTIVE: To provide an overview of the practical skills learning curriculum and assess its effects over time on the surgical interns' perceptions of their technical skills, patient management, administrative tasks, and knowledge. DESIGN: An 84-hour practical skills curriculum composed of didactic, simulation, and practical sessions was implemented during the 2015 to 2016 academic year for general surgery interns. Totally, 40% of the sessions were held during orientation, whereas the remainder sessions were held throughout the academic year. Interns' perceptions of their technical skills, administrative tasks, patient management, and knowledge were assessed by the practical skills curriculum residents' perception survey at various time points during their intern year (baseline, midpoint, and final). Interns were also asked to fill out an evaluation survey at the completion of each session to obtain feedback on the curriculum. SETTING: General Surgery Residency program at a tertiary care academic institution. PARTICIPANTS: 20 General Surgery categorical and preliminary interns. RESULTS: Significant differences were found over time in interns' perceptions on their technical skills, patient management, administrative tasks, and knowledge (p < 0.001 for all). The results were also statistically significant when accounting for a prior boot camp course in medical school, intern status (categorical or preliminary), and gender (p < 0.05 for all). Differences in interns' perceptions occurred both from baseline to midpoint, and from midpoint to final time point evaluations (p < 0.001 for all). Prior surgical boot camp in medical school status, intern status (categorical vs. preliminary), and gender did not differ in the interns' baseline perceptions of their technical skills, patient management, administrative tasks, and knowledge (p > 0.05 for all). CONCLUSIONS: Implementation of a Practical Skills Curriculum in surgical internships can improve interns' confidence perception on their technical skills, patient management skills, administrative tasks, and knowledge.

Mistreatment and the learning environment for medical students on general surgery clerkship rotations: What do key stakeholders think?

BACKGROUND: Mistreatment has potential downstream effects on students. General surgery rotations tend to have a higher incidence of mistreatment reports. This study was undertaken to identify dominant themes contributing to a negative learning environment. METHODS: A qualitative study was performed using Delphi consensus technique to develop a discussion guide. Four focus groups were performed (n = 30 participants) with medical students, residents, nurses, and attending surgeons. Participants were selected using purposive-stratified criterion-based sampling. RESULTS: Multiple themes emerged: 1) unclear expectations for medical students; 2) passive mistreatment (neglect); 3) failure to integrate students into surgical team; 4) witnessed or experienced active mistreatment, 5) negative attitude of residents towards medical students' lack of knowledge. CONCLUSIONS: Medical student mistreatment persists and is a threat to the learning environment and individual learning process. Passive mistreatment (neglect) represents the most distressing component of mistreatment. These findings suggest a need for education aimed at surgical residents and others in the learning environment.

Blood-based detection of RAS mutations to guide anti-EGFR therapy in colorectal cancer patients: concordance of results from circulating tumor DNA and tissue-based RAS testing.

An accurate blood-based RAS mutation assay to determine eligibility of metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) patients for anti-EGFR therapy would benefit clinical practice by better informing decisions to administer treatment independent of tissue availability. The objective of this study was to determine the level of concordance between plasma and tissue RAS mutation status in patients with mCRC to gauge whether blood-based RAS mutation testing is a viable alternative to standard-of-care RAS tumor testing. RAS testing was performed on plasma samples from newly diagnosed metastatic patients, or from recurrent mCRC patients using the highly sensitive digital PCR technology, BEAMing (beads, emulsions, amplification, and magnetics), and compared with DNA sequencing data of respective FFPE (formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded) tumor samples. Discordant tissue RAS results were re-examined by BEAMing, if possible. The prevalence of RAS mutations detected in plasma (51%) vs. tumor (53%) was similar, in accord with the known prevalence of RAS mutations observed in mCRC patient populations. The positive agreement between plasma and tumor RAS results was 90.4% (47/52), the negative agreement was 93.5% (43/46), and the overall agreement (concordance) was 91.8% (90/98). The high concordance of plasma and tissue results demonstrates that blood-based RAS mutation testing is a viable alternative to tissue-based RAS testing.

Síndrome de Herlyn Werner Wünderlich. Reporte de caso / Herlyn Werner Wünderlich syndrome. Case report

El síndrome de Herlyn Werner Wünderlich (SHWW) se caracteriza por la triada útero didelfo, hemivagina obstruida y agenesia renal homolateral; fue descrito en 1976. Es una entidad poco conocida en ginecología; se debe a una alteración de la fusión de los conductos de Müller y la estrecha relación del origen embrionario de los aparatos genital y urinario. Su diagnóstico es tardío ya que los síntomas inician generalmente después de la menarquia y su intensidad puede variar. Su tratamiento se sustenta en el correcto diagnóstico y la correspondiente resolución quirúrgica. La resección del tabique uterino mejora, generalmente, las condiciones de la paciente y el pronóstico, pudiendo lograrse la gestación. (AU)

Herlyn-Werner-Wünderlich is a syndrome characterized by the triad of uterus didelphys, obstructed hemivagina and ipsilateral renal agenesis. It is an uncommon müllerian ducts congenital anomaly, affecting the urogenital tract because of the close embryonic origin of the urogenital system. Its diagnosis is of late onset because symptoms appear after the menarche and the intensity of the symptoms varies among patients. Treatment is based on a proper and timely diagnosis, as well as a surgical correction of the defects. A resection of the uterine septum generally improves the symptoms and creates a favorable future prognosis, making an intrauterine pregnancy possible. We present a case of a 22-year old female patient with delayed diagnosis of Herlyn-Werner-Wünderlich syndrome, with no hemivaginal septum, whose chief complaints were dysmenorrhea and recurring purulent vaginal discharge despite unsuccessful surgical interventions. A mini laparotomy Strassman metroplasty was performed, resolving her symptomatology. (AU)