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THERE IS AN INCREASE IN OPERATIVE TIME REQUIRED TO COMPLETE SOME SURGICAL PROCEDURES
12 April 2004 - Boston University
| There is an increase in operative time required to complete some surgical procedures associated with training surgical residents in the operating room, according to an article in the April issue of The Archives of Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. |
According to the article, it is widely believed that the amount of time required to perform an operation increases when the procedure also involves training a surgical resident. The article states that this increase in time does not translate into a financial burden for the hospital. In addition, although not part of this study, other research has shown no deleterious effects of increased operative times. Timothy J. Babineau, M.D., M.B.A., from Boston University School of Medicine, and colleagues compared the operative times of academic surgeons performing four common surgical procedures before and after the introduction of a post-graduate resident into the operating room at a community teaching hospital. Between January 1, 2001 and June 30, 2002, four academic surgeons performed operations without a resident. During that time, they either operated alone for hernia surgeries, or assisted each other for laproscopic cholecystectomy (gall bladder removal), colectomy (removal of part of the colon), and carotid endarterectomy (removal of plaque from an artery that supplies blood to the brain). From July 1, 2002 through March 31, 2003, these same four surgeons were assisted on the same procedures by a resident physician in the third year of a post-graduate surgical training program. The researchers found the amount of time required to perform each of the procedures increased with the addition of the surgical resident. •Hernia surgery – increase of eight minutes
•Laparoscopic cholecystectomy – increase of 23 minutes
•Carotid endarterectomy – increase of 44 minutes
•Partial colectomy – increase of 60 minutes The authors suggest that time spent in the operating room teaching residents represents an opportunity cost in time that the surgeon could be meeting other demands such as teaching, writing, and research. “Such a cost, however, must be balanced against the time savings that residents generate by unloading many of the preoperative and postoperative patient care tasks that would otherwise fall to the attending staff,” the researchers write.
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Boston University has a well-deserved reputation for excellence in research in a wide range of disciplines and a demonstrated commitment to fostering innovative interdisciplinary research. The Office of the Associate Provost for Research and Graduate Education supports the University in facilitating research at the both the student and faculty levels.Our mission is to enhance and encourage research at Boston University and to provide a climate conducive to maintaining the University at the cutting edge of research and scholarly activities. We work with the Boston University community to plan and coordinate interdisciplinary research and represent the University in research matters related to Inter-University consortia. To encourage new, innovative, and cross-disciplinary efforts, this office administers the Special Program for Research Initiation Grants (SPRInG). We showcase graduate research at Science & Technology Day. This annual event features nearly 200 research posters by graduate students from both the Medical and Charles River Campuses working in a wide range of disciplines. Our annual research magazine, Research at Boston University, informs a wide audience about a selection of our significant research findings and ongoing studies at Boston University. We also maintain a strong presence on the web through this site and through the Science Coalition’s website, which brings our research successes to the attention of Congress and other policy makers in the federal government. To assist Boston University researchers, this office oversees the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program and coordinates with the Office of Sponsored Programs on the Charles River Campus , the research administration on the Medical Campus, the Office of Research Compliance, and the various graduate programs. For the development of commercially viable ideas, we administer the Provost's Innovation Fund and work closely with the Office of Technology Transfer. We also coordinate proposals where there are institutional limits to the number of proposals that may be submitted, cost sharing requirements, significant laboratory renovations, or other special circumstances. This office assists departments and centers to achieve a diverse faculty and graduate student body through our membership and activities with the Northeast Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate and through our affiliation with the Clare Boothe Luce program of the Henry Luce Foundation. |
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