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Is there disparity between regions and facilities in surgical resident training in Japan? Insights from a national survey

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Abstract

Purpose

This study sought to assess the disparity between regions and facilities in surgical resident training in Japan via a national level needs-assessment.

Methods

A survey was sent to all 909 graduating residents of 2016. Residents trained in the six prefectures with a population of 7 million or more were included in the large prefecture (LP) group. Residents trained in the other 41 prefectures were included in the small prefecture (SP) group. Each group was further divided into a university hospital (UH) group and a non-university hospital (NUH) group.

Results

The response rate was 56.3% (n = 512). Excluding nine residents who did not report their prefectures and facilities, surveys from 503 residents were analyzed. The UH group received significantly more years of training. In the SP and UH groups, there were significantly fewer residents who had performed 150 procedures or more under general anesthesia in comparison to the LP and NUH groups, respectively. Self-assessed competencies for several procedures were significantly lower in the SP and UH groups.

Conclusion

Disparity in surgical resident training was found between regions and facilities in Japan. The surgical residency curriculum in Japan could be improved to address this problem.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all the participants in this survey who participated in this survey. We would also like to thank Hidetaka Suzuki, Takamichi Sugiyama, Suguru Kuramochi, Azumi Hirano and all of the staff of the JSS Secretariat for providing us with logistical support during this study. We thank Benjamin Knight, MSc., from Edanz Group (https:\\www.edanzediting.com/ac) for editing a draft of this manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Surgery, Kansai Medical University, 2-5-1 Shin-machi, Hirakata-city, Osaka, 573-1010, Japan

    Daisuke Hashimoto

  2. Department of Gastroenterological Surgery, Omuta Tenryo Hospital, Fukuoka, Japan

    Daisuke Hashimoto

  3. Department of Gastroenterological Surgery, Kumamoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Kumamoto, Japan

    Daisuke Hashimoto

  4. Department of Gastroenterological Surgery II, Faculty of Medicine, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan

    Saseem Poudel, Satoshi Hirano & Yo Kurashima

  5. Department of Gastroenterological Surgery, Yokohama City University Graduate School of Medicine, Yokohama, Japan

    Hirotoshi Akiyama

  6. Department of Surgery, Nagasaki University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Nagasaki, Japan

    Susumu Eguchi

  7. Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Kumamoto University Hospital, Kumamoto, Japan

    Toshihiro Fukui

  8. Department of Surgery, Tokyo Medical University, Tokyo, Japan

    Masaru Hagiwara

  9. Department of Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan

    Koya Hida

  10. Department of Pediatric Surgery, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan

    Tomoko Izaki

  11. Department of Breast and Endocrine Surgery, Kumamoto University, Kumamoto, Japan

    Hirotaka Iwase

  12. Division of Cardiovascular Surgery, Tohoku Medical and Pharmaceutical University, Sendai, Japan

    Shunsuke Kawamoto

  13. Trauma and Acute Critical Care Center, Tokyo Medical and Dental University Hospital of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan

    Yasuhiro Otomo

  14. Department of Surgery and Oncology, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan

    Eishi Nagai

  15. Department of Breast Oncology, Juntendo University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan

    Mitsue Saito

  16. Department of Gastroenterological Surgery, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya, Japan

    Hideki Takami & Yasuhiro Kodera

  17. Division of Medical Education, Juntendo University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan

    Yuko Takeda

  18. Department of Breast Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan

    Masakazu Toi

  19. Second Department of Surgery, Wakayama Medical University, Wakayama, Japan

    Hiroki Yamaue

  20. Department of Medical Education, Graduate School of Medicine, International University of Health and Welfare, Narita, Japan

    Motofumi Yoshida

  21. Department of Thoracic Surgery, International University of Health and Welfare School of Medicine, Narita, Japan

    Shigetoshi Yoshida

  22. Division of Vascular Surgery, Department of Surgery, Jikei University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan

    Takao Ohki

Authors
  1. Daisuke Hashimoto
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  2. Saseem Poudel
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  3. Satoshi Hirano
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  4. Yo Kurashima
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  5. Hirotoshi Akiyama
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  6. Susumu Eguchi
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  7. Toshihiro Fukui
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  8. Masaru Hagiwara
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  9. Koya Hida
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  10. Tomoko Izaki
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  11. Hirotaka Iwase
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  13. Yasuhiro Otomo
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  14. Eishi Nagai
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  15. Mitsue Saito
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  16. Hideki Takami
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  17. Yuko Takeda
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  18. Masakazu Toi
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  19. Hiroki Yamaue
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  20. Motofumi Yoshida
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  21. Shigetoshi Yoshida
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  22. Takao Ohki
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  23. Yasuhiro Kodera
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Consortia

Japan Surgical Society Residency Curriculum Review Working Group, Japan Surgical Society Education Committee

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Daisuke Hashimoto.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest in association with the present study.

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Hashimoto, D., Poudel, S., Hirano, S. et al. Is there disparity between regions and facilities in surgical resident training in Japan? Insights from a national survey. Surg Today 50, 1585–1593 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00595-020-02037-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00595-020-02037-z

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