3.2.1 Simulations
A few studies have been done on investigating different interventions in medical education to foster an early interest in CT surgery. In Macfie R. et al. (23), 31 US medical students, 26 general surgery residents, and 15 CT fellows participated in 7 tissue-based simulations supervised by 6 CT faculty in a single institution from 2015-2017. The pre and post-surveys revealed that CT simulation participation significantly increased operative confidence and interest across all training levels. Of the 44 that were not confident pre-simulation, 75% increased their confidence levels by 1 or more with 39% of them experiencing an increase in 2 or more levels. The magnitude of increase in interest levels was significantly larger earlier in training (43.06 for medical students, 29.17 for PGY1-4, and 27.78 PGY5 to fellow level at p= 0.001).
A recent evaluation by Coyan G. et al. (19) on simulation-based electives, showed an increase in those who scrubbed in or observed CT cases from 9% pre-course to 33.3% post-course (p=0.11). In addition to that, the ease of acquiring a mentor significantly increased from 23.8% pre-course to 66.7% post-course (P=0.01). 81% reported that the mini-elective significantly increased their CT knowledge when compared to the standard curriculum. A similar 2010 study involving 44 medical students at a US institution also showed that post-course, 61% (p=0.001) agreed that their interest increased significantly. In terms of subspecialty selection, 18% chose thoracic surgery pre-course versus the 39% post-course. This also proved to be a good experience amongst female participants as only 3 (12%) selected a thoracic rotation pre-course but 9(35%) selected it post-course (24).