Something for everyone: the benefits of longitudinal mentorship with the application of the acquisition of data for outcomes and procedure transfer (ADOPT) program to a SAGES hands-on colectomy course

Continued professional development of surgeons remains a challenging and unstandardized enterprise. The Continuing Education Committee of SAGES created the Acquisition of Data for Outcomes and Procedure Adoption (ADOPT) program, incorporating a standardized training approach into hands-on courses with a year-long longitudinal mentorship experience. To evaluate the program’s transferability to other procedures following its successful application to a SAGES hernia course, the ADOPT method was applied to the SAGES 2017 laparoscopic colectomy course. Participant data included demographics, training and experience, as well as pre-and post-course self-reported colectomy case volumes and procedure confidence. Confidence levels were for techniques taught in the course using a 5-point scale: 1 = not confident at all to 5 = completely confident. Participants reported confidence in the following skills for laparoscopic right and left colectomy: (1) formulating an operative plan, (2) identifying proper anatomical planes and isolating anatomic structures, and (3) competently conducting the technical steps of the procedure. A total of 18 surgeons enrolled in the SAGES 2017 Colon Program, 10 of whom completed the 6-month post-course questionnaire (56%). Participants reported significantly higher confidence in all skills at 6 months compared to pre-course (p ≤ 0.015). Most participants (60%) reported an increase in the number of procedures performed. The lowest pre-course case volume group (≤ 5 annual cases, n = 5 6-month survey responders) demonstrated a trend for increased procedure volume post-course (5.6 vs. 2, p = 0.057). The overwhelming majority of survey respondents (90%) felt either “confident” or “extremely confident” performing the procedures learned (range 80–100% across tasks). Participants found the program to be an advantageous method of becoming competent and confident in performing these procedures. The application of the ADOPT program to the laparoscopic colectomy course was successful in increasing surgeon confidence and demonstrated a trend in improving surgeon procedure counts in the novice participant group.