Annals of surgery
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Health care reform and surgical education are often separated functionally. However, especially in surgery, where resident trainees often spend twice as much time in residency and fellowship than in undergraduate medical education, one must consider their contributions to health care. ⋯ The authors propose that surgical education must align itself with rather than separate itself from overall health care reform measures and even individual hospital financial pressures. This should not be seen as additional burden of service, but rather practical education in training as to the pressures trainees will face as future employees. Rethinking the contributions and training of residents and fellows may also synergistically work to impress to hospital administrators that providing better, more focused and applicable education to residents and fellows may have long-term, strategic, positive impacts on institutions.
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To describe the future supply and demand for pediatric surgeons using a physician supply model to determine what the future supply of pediatric surgeons will be over the next decade and a half and to compare that projected supply with potential indicators of demand and the growth of other subspecialties. ⋯ The rate of entry into pediatric surgery will continue to exceed population growth through 2030 under two likely scenarios. The very rapid anticipated growth in focused pediatric subspecialties will likely prove challenging to surgeons wishing to maintain their skills with complex cases as a larger and more diverse group of surgeons will also seek to care for many of the conditions and patients which the general pediatric surgeons and general surgeons now see. This means controlling the numbers of pediatric surgery fellowships in a way that recognizes problems with distribution, the volume of cases available to maintain proficiency, and the dynamics of retirement and shifts into other specialty practice.
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The purpose of this study was to assess whether perfusion-decellularization technology could be applied to facial grafts. ⋯ Acellular scaffolds were produced from the porcine ear, and may be a valuable platform to treat facial deformities using regenerative medicine approaches.