The Effect of Structured Feedback on Live Surgical Performance: A Single-Blind Randomized Control Trial

The American Association of Gynecologic Laparoscopists (AAGL) and Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) have endeavored to implement structure and standardization for the fellowship in minimally invasive gynecologic surgical programs (FMIGS) and obstetric and gynecology residency programs respectively. Educational objectives are explicitly delineated. Though the fellowship and residency educational objectives are well rounded, and include the development of skills to become leaders and educators in the field of minimally invasive gynecologic surgery (MIGS) and general obstetrics and gynecology, one of the main objective of the fellowship and residency training is the attainment of surgical skill. This is ensured by a requirement for a breadth of surgical exposure including vaginal surgery, hysteroscopy, traditional laparoscopy, management of surgical complications, minimally invasive hysterectomy, urogynecologic procedures, gastrointestinal surgery, urinary tract surgery, reproductive surgery, and the surgical management of common gynecologic conditions such as endometriosis. Minimum case requirements have been implemented to provide guidance for FMIGS and residency programs. In addition, trainees are required to log surgical cases and this information is utilized for FMIGS and residency program site inspections as well as for feedback of surgical competency. Despite standardization efforts by the AAGL and ACGME, the FMIGS and obstetric and gynecology residency curriculums are still in evolution. There is likely still great variation in surgical exposure between programs. In addition, though regular feedback is a requirement of training programs, the process is likely unstructured and subjective; based on case logs, self-assessments, and feedback by faculty surgeons. There is thus a critical need to develop a standardized, objective, timely, and actionable feedback methodology to facilitate program oversight and ensure FMIGS fellows and obstetrics and gynecology residents are achieving surgical competency throughout their training. In the absence of such structured feedback models, it will remain difficult to optimize FMIGS fellowship and obstetrics and gynecology resident training, and provide objective measurements of the impact of such training on surgical performance and patient outcomes. .

The long-term goal of this study is to assist in developing methods for surgical assessment that facilitate program oversight, allow fellows, residents, and program directors to identify specific skill sets in need of improvement, monitor progress in skill acquisition, and clearly and objectively document achievement of milestones throughout training. The study's overall objective is to determine how consistent structured feedback using crowd sourcing impacts time to complete a task as well as surgical performance as measured by GOALS and GEARS scores. The central hypothesis is that fellows and residents who receive consistent structured feedback over a sustained period of time will have shorter task times, overall improved performance, and greater satisfaction than fellows and residents receiving traditional feedback. The rationale for this work is that it will provide focus and supportive data for large-scale studies of surgical skill acquisition and development.

This study seeks to establish the effect of regular structured feedback on surgical performance using crowd sourced video assessments with GOALS and GEARS through a randomized controlled trial. The study hypothesizes regular structured assessment will lead to a greater measurable improvement in performance, as defined by change and GOALS and GEARS scores, than will traditional feedback methods as well as time to complete a specific procedure.