Gastroenterology Fellow Knowledge of Esophageal Motility and Manometry: Assessment and Improvement Initiative at an...

There is scarce information on the state of general gastrointestinal (GI) fellow knowledge of esophageal motility and the interpretation skills of esophageal high-resolution manometry (HRM).

This study aimed to assess GI fellow knowledge of esophageal motility and manometry interpretation.

A 6-month educational program consisting of eight didactic sessions in the form of a weekly educational email, three didactic conferences, and handouts pertaining to the Chicago Classification (v3.0) of esophageal HRM was conducted. Both pre- and post-intervention surveys were collected using SurveyMonkey®. Five questions assessed fellows' knowledge of esophageal motility and manometry, and two questions examined their self-assessment of knowledge and confidence in managing esophageal motility disorders (EMDs). Descriptive statistics and Student's t test were used for the analysis.

Ten GI fellows (four first-year, five second-year, and one third-year) from a single academic institution participated in the intervention. Fellows showed a trend for better knowledge of the clinical aspects of esophageal motility over HRM interpretation (P value 0.09). On a scale of 1-5, with 5 being the highest, fellows' self-assessment of esophageal motility knowledge pre-intervention averaged 1.8 (SD 0.78) and post-intervention 2.9 (SD 0.99); P value 0.007. Fellows' confidence in managing EMDs pre-intervention averaged 1.7 (SD 0.66) and post-intervention 2.8 (SD 0.91); P value 0.04. Subgroup analyses, including fellows' self-assessment of knowledge, and fellows' confidence in managing EMDs, maintained statistically significance for level of training.

GI fellow knowledge of esophageal motility and manometry interpretation, as well as confidence in managing EMDs, improved significantly after a 6-month formal educational program.