1,720,990 research outputs found
Fellowship of the European Board of Surgery in the specialty of Minimally Invasive Surgery (FEBS/MIS): a continuous evaluation
No full textBackgroundMinimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) has become the standard approach for many procedures, driving rapid changes in training pathways and challenging traditional assessment and accreditation methods. To address this, the European Union of Medical Specialists (UEMS), in collaboration with the European Association for Endoscopic Surgery (EAES), established a working group in 2015 to develop a MIS-specific board fellowship exam (Fellow of European Board of Surgery in Minimally Invasive Surgery (F.E.B.S./MIS)). This rigorous, multi-modality examination assesses surgeons' knowledge and skills to ensure high-quality independent practice. This study provides an overview of the exam's development, structure, and quality assurance, with a focus on participant evaluation.MethodsEligibility followed UEMS criteria, including certified MIS training, case logbook documentation, and English proficiency. The exam comprised a 100-item multiple-choice test (MCQ) and an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) with clinical scenarios and validated technical skill tasks. Participants completed evaluation questionnaires on exam experience. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, linear regression, and independent-samples t-tests to examine associations between experience, performance, and total scores.ResultsBetween 2018 and 2024, 119 participants from 28 countries undertook the exam in seven European countries. Most were experienced attending surgeons, with pass rates of 61-88%. Higher credit scores were linked to passing, though not directly correlated, indicating experience alone did not ensure success. Fellowships were considered as the optimal exam time, with motivations including certification and knowledge updates. Feedback was highly positive, especially for oral case-based stations, and nearly all recommended the exam. Suggested improvements included streamlining the application process, enhancing practical training opportunities, offering flexible dates, and enabling exams in candidates' home countries or languages.ConclusionThe UEMS/EAES MIS Board exam is firmly established as a specialized certification for MIS and has been well received by participants. Nevertheless, its broader influence and professional recognition still require systematic assessment.Funding Agencies|Pavol Jozef Scaron;afrik University in Koscaron;ice; European Association for Endoscopic Surgery (EAES); KG (Tuttlingen, Germany)</p
Development and evaluation of a societal core robotic surgery accreditation curriculum for the UK.
No full textOpen Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.Standardised proficiency-based progression is the cornerstone of safe robotic skills acquisition, however, is currently lacking within surgical training curricula. Expert consensuses have defined a modular pathway to accredit surgeons. This study aimed to address the lack of a formal, pre-clinical core robotic skills, proficiency-based accreditation curriculum in the UK. Novice robotic participants underwent a four-day pre-clinical core robotic skills curriculum incorporating multimodal assessment. Modifiable-Global Evaluative Assessment of Robotic Skills (M-GEARS), VR-automated performance metrics (APMs) and Objective Clinical Human Reliability Analysis (OCHRA) error methodology assessed performance at the beginning and end of training. Messick's validity concept and a curriculum evaluation model were utilised. Feedback was collated. Proficiency-based progression, benchmarking, tool validity and reliability was assessed through comparative and correlational statistical methods. Forty-seven participants were recruited. Objective assessment of VR and dry models across M-GEARS, APMs and OCHRA demonstrated significant improvements in technical skill (p < 0.001). Concurrent validity between assessment tools demonstrated strong correlation in dry and VR tasks (r = 0.64-0.92, p < 0.001). OCHRA Inter-rater reliability was excellent (r = 0.93, p < 0.001 and 81% matched error events). A benchmark was established with M-GEARS and for the curriculum at 80%. Thirty (63.82%) participants passed. Feedback was 5/5 stars on average, with 100% recommendation. Curriculum evaluation fulfilled all five domains of Messick's validity. Core robotic surgical skills training can be objectively evaluated and benchmarked to provide accreditation in basic robotic skills. A strategy is necessary to enrol standardised curricula into national surgical training at an early stage to ensure patient safety
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
Time from colorectal cancer diagnosis to laparoscopic curative surgery: is there a safe window for prehabilitation?
No full textBackground: There is a growing interest in the adoption of formal prehabilitation programmes prior to elective surgery but regulatory targets mandate prompt treatment following cancer diagnosis. We aimed to investigate if time from diagnosis to surgery is linked to short- and long-term outcomes. Methods: An exploratory analysis was performed utilising a dedicated, prospectively populated database. Inclusion criteria were biopsy-proven colorectal adenocarcinoma undergoing elective laparoscopic surgery with curative intent. Demographics, date of diagnosis and surgery was captured with patients dichotomised using 4-, 8- and 12-week time points. All patients were followed in a standardised pathway for 5 years. Overall survival was assessed with the Kaplan-Meier log-rank method. Results: Six hundred sixty-eight consecutive patients met inclusion criteria. Mean time from diagnosis to surgery was 53 days (95% CI 48.3–57.8). Identified risk factors for longer time to surgery were males (OR 1.92 [1.2–3.1], p = 0.008), age ≤ 65 (OR 1.9 [1.2–3], p = 0.01), higher ASA scores (p = 0.01) stoma formation (OR 6.9 [4.1–11], p < 0.001) and neoadjuvant treatment (OR 5.06 [3.1–8.3], p < 0.001). There was no association between time to surgery and BMI (p = 0.36), conversion (16.3%, p = 0.5), length of stay (p = 0.33) and readmission or reoperation (p = 0.3). No differences in five-year survival were seen in those operated within 4, 8 and 12 weeks (p = 0.397, p = 0.962 and p = 0.611, respectively). Multivariate analysis showed time from diagnosis to surgery was not associated with five-year overall survival (HR 0.99, p = 0.52). Conclusion: Time from colorectal cancer diagnosis to curative laparoscopic surgery did not impact on overall survival. This finding may allow preoperative pathway alteration without compromising safety.</p
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
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