Over the past several years, the ACS Division of Education has methodically defined a validated domain of cases and recruited expert faculty to develop the assessment. Four pilot studies were conducted in a step-wise sequence with improvements made after each pilot. The first pilot was a small study that focused on the test takers’ understanding of the clinical cases. The second pilot study asked users to provide feedback on the assessment’s online presentation and functionality. The technical feasibility study tested the technical operations and capacity of the online server. Most importantly, the psychometric pilot study was conducted during the summer of 2017 across 18 surgical residency programs nationwide: the results demonstrated validity and psychometric rigor. (doi: 10.1097/SLA.0000000000003241).
Since its launch in 2018, more than 1350 residents across 98 general surgery residency programs have participated nationwide. Development is ongoing to protect the integrity and quality of the assessment.
Kathy R. Liscum, MD, FACS, Co-Chair
Ajit K. Sachdeva, MD, FACS, FRCSC, FSACME, Co-Chair
Adnan A. Alseidi, MD, EdM, FACS
Edgardo Salcedo, MD, FACS
Yoon Soo Park, PhD
Maura E. Sullivan, MSN, PhD
Patrice Gabler Blair, MPH
Melissa M. Gesbeck, PhD
Georges Bordage, MD, MSc, PhD
Rebecca C. Britt, MD, FACS
Melissa E. Brunsvold, MD, FACS
Benjamin W. Dart IV, MD, FACS
Celia M. Divino, MD, FACS
Robert M. Goldstein, MD, FACS
Enjae Jung, MD, FACS
Alan P. Ladd, MD, FACS
Jennifer LaFemina, MD, FACS
Eric Lazar, MD, FACS
John D. Mellinger, MD, FACS
Sarkis H. Meterissian, MD, FACS
Rebecca M. Minter, MD, FACS
John T. Mullen, MD, FACS
Patricia J. Numann, MD, FACS
Barbara J. Pettitt, MD, FACS, FAAP
Douglas S. Smink, MD, FACS
Ranjan Sudan, MD, FACS
For more information, e-mail acserra@facs.org or call 312-202-5746.