Put me in coach

The weakest link in the certification process is the assessment of surgical skill which is not directly assessed by an independent body. [...]after completion of residency, there are no structured programs that are validated or accredited by a national certification organization which examine current surgical skills and provide opportunities for individual improvement. [...]most post-graduate medical activities such as conferences and advanced courses are primarily didactic with nominal rigorous individualized goal focused learning opportunities. Pradarelli and colleagues in this issue of the American Journal of Surgery, propose that video-based assessment combined with peer surgical coaching is one avenue to meet the ABMS Vision commission recommendation that continuous certification pathways assess and identify skills gaps to help physicians stay current with standards of practice.2 The use of video-based assessment to improve patient care, surgical quality, and individual surgical performance has been demonstrated now in numerous studies.3,4 One of the earliest studies demonstrating the improvement of surgical quality and patient outcomes following a peer-based video assessment program is from the Michigan Bariatric Surgery Collaborative.5 This program used peer coaching based review of video captured bariatric operations.