A new study by Cooke & Wisner performed at a large medical center in California (UC Davis) and published in the Annals of Thoracic Surgery provides additional weight to the idea that Thoracic Surgery has increasingly developed into it’s own subspecialty away from the traditional cardiothoracic surgery model (seen in the United States and several other countries.)
In an article published in Medical News Today, the authors of the study explained that the increased complexity of (noncardiac) thoracic surgery procedures for general thoracic conditions has led to increased referrals and utilization of general thoracic surgeons (versus cardiac or general surgeons). This shows a reversal in a previous trend away from specialists – with more patients now receiving “complex” thoracic surgery procedures from specialty trained, board-certified thoracic surgeons. Previously up to 75% of all thoracic surgery procedures were performed by general surgeons.
As the authors of the study discussed; this has serious implications for the curriculum of thoracic surgery fellowship programs, particularly as the specialty tries to attract more residents to stem an on-going and critical shortage.
With lung cancer rates expected to climb dramatically in North America and Europe, particularly in women – along with esophageal cancer, and long waits already common, support and on-going discussion about the evolution of resident and fellow education is desperately needed.
Reference
Cooke, D. T. & Wisner, D. H. (2012). Who performs complex noncardiac thoracic Surgery in United States Academic Medical Centers? Ann Thorac Surg 2012;94:1060-1064. doi:10.1016/j.athoracsur.2012.04.018
Thoracic Surgery 