Effect of Changing Patterns and Requirements of Endoscopic Training in Surgical Residency

This study aimed at looking at the effect of changing patterns and requirements of endoscopic training in surgical residency. Recognizing the increasing role of endoscopy, the minimum required scope number was increased to 85 (including at least 35 esophagogastroduodenoscopies (EGD) and 50 colonoscopies) for graduates completing their program in June 2009. The purpose of our study was to see how this new requirement affected the endoscopic performance of residents. A retrospective study was done examining the performance of residents, based on data from the national Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) logs from 1990–2010. For graduating residents, we compared data for various procedures from 1990–2008 to 2009–2010. For colonoscopies, the average increased from 32 to 63. Increases were also found in their chief year, from 7 to 18.8. For EGD, the average increased from 25 to 34. In their chief year, the average more than doubled from 4.4 to 9.7. There were no increases for other endoscopic procedures such as endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP), bronchoscopies, and cystoscopies between the 2 time periods. When an increased requirement for endoscopy was instituted by the ACGME, there was an increase in the number of colonoscopies and EGD performed by the graduating residents, although there was no difference in the numbers of other scopes (e.g., cystoscopes, bronchoscopes, and ERCP) for the same time period.