Cross-Sectional Analysis of Global Surgery Opportunities Among General Surgery Residency Programs

Global surgery is a rising field within academic surgery. With the publication of recent landmark papers highlighting the need for increased global efforts to combat surgical disease, many general surgery residents seek opportunities to gain clinical, research, and educational experience related to global surgery during residency. This study aims to quantify the global surgery opportunities that are publicly available to residents training in Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME)-accredited general surgery programs.

The websites of all ACGME-accredited general surgery residency programs were surveyed for mention of global surgery training opportunities. Each opportunity was recorded in a database and categorized based on type. Recorded categories include international clinical rotations, international surgical research opportunities, and formal tracks or training pathways for global surgery.

Of the 299 ACGME-accredited general surgery training programs, 52 (17%) mention some form of international surgical opportunity on their website. Among these programs, 11 (21%) note both clinical and research opportunities, 28 (54%) mention only clinical opportunities, and 13 (25%) list only research opportunities. The large majority of global surgery opportunities were based in training programs at academic medical centers (n = 50, 96%). There was no significant difference in the percentage of global surgery programs when evaluated by program region (p = 0.154) CONCLUSIONS: Few general surgery residency programs mention international training opportunities on their program websites. For those programs that do offer global surgery opportunities, these are typically international rotations offered as electives for upper-level residents. Expanding access to global surgery opportunities may be beneficial to meet the desires of residents wishing to pursue academic global surgery.