Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education core competencies initiative: the road to implementation in the surgical specialties

The overall goal of the article is to provide readers with instructive, concrete examples of surgical program initiatives to address the ACGME competencies, and to point readers to resources that may facilitate their own efforts.

Abstract

Progressing the field of surgical simulation research cohesively requires organization. The purpose of this study was to establish contemporary research priorities utilizing Delphi methodology.Surgical researchers with expertise in simulation-based research were invited to submit important questions for the field according to an organized framework. Thematic analysis was used to collapse questions into unique questions. In a second round, experts rated the importance of questions. In a third round, experts re-rated the importance of questions. A prioritized agenda was then created.Eighteen experts submitted 80 questions in round one, which were collapsed into 43. In the final round, experts rated the following question as the most important priority: "Does demonstrated competency in the simulation lab translate to clinical competency (OR etc.)?"Our systematic approach identified multiple important questions to advance the field that may guide researchers and funding agencies alike.