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Teaching Conferences
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| Weekly Update Conference |
Cardiac Surgery Conferences |
| Thoracic Surgery Conferences |
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 Weekly Update Conference
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| The primary didactic component of the training program is the Cardiothoracic Surgery Weekly Update Conference which takes place on Wednesday mornings with faculty, residents and mid-level providers. Topics are chosen following the Thoracic Surgery Directors Association (TSDA) Core curriculum, a web-based series of lectures covering the basics of cardiothoracic surgical anatomy, physiology, diagnosis and surgical therapy. Conference topics are assigned to HLESI faculty members, faculty from related specialties (pulmonologists; oncology; electrocardiology; perfusion; echocardiology; cardiothoracic transplantation) and invited Visiting Professorships. In conjunction with each Visiting Professorship is an afternoon of clinical case and research presentations by the residents. The visiting professor questions, interprets and directs discussion which is an excellent opportunity for comparative perspective and analysis. |
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Cardiac Surgery Conferences
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There are several teaching conferences devoted to the clinical and research education of the CT resident during their cardiac surgery rotations. Wednesday morning, 6-10 am is the dedicated education morning for cardiac conferences. Residents rotating on all cardiac surgical services are excused from their clinical duties to attend teaching conferences. Faculty members are also encouraged to postpone the start of their clinical activities until 10 am to facilitate resident education.
Cardiac Morbidity and Mortality Conference: The first conference conducted by the cardiac surgery division on Wednesday mornings is a weekly morbidity and mortality conference from 615 am to 7 am. Thoracic faculty members, residents, and fellows review the previous week’s adverse outcomes, including mortalities, and discuss management issues. At this conference, opportunities for quality improvement are identified. Faculty members are present and encouraged to raise important evidence-based considerations for the adverse outcomes, including issues of appropriate management (including preoperative decision-making, intra-operative technical issues and post-operative care).
Adult Cardiac Case Conference: This conference follows the division-wide Wednesday 7 am educational conference and runs from 8-9am. Directed by the adult cardiac surgical faculty, this is a case-based interactive conference. The topic for the week is often selected in advance on the basis of recent interesting or difficult cases which occurred during the prior week. Core cardiac surgical topics and problems are addressed each week with focus on diagnosis, work-up, echocardiogram/coronary angiography/ct scan review, and technical aspects of the conduct of the operation.
Thoracic Aortic Conference: This conference follows the adult cardiac case conference from 9am to 10am on Wednesdays. The style is interactive similar to that of the adult cardiac case conference. Often an oral board exam style is utilized. Key issues in diagnosis, management, and imaging review of thoracic aortic pathology are addressed. Specifically, acute and chronic dissection and thoracic aortic aneurysms are emphasized with both open and endovascular surgical approaches.
Cardiac Cath Conference: This is a multidisciplinary conference on Thursday afternoons held in conjunction with the Division of cardiology. It is a case presentation based conference with discussion among surgeons and cardiologists regarding diagnosis and management of cardiovascular pathology.
Congenital Case Conference: This conference is held weekly at Childrens Hospital of Pittsburgh and is attended by the resident on the congenital heart service. It is a multidisciplinary case conference of pediatric cardiologists, interventionalists, radiologists, and congenital heart surgeons. Patient physiologic and fellows review the previous week’s adverse outcomes, including mortalities, and discuss management issues. At this conference, opportunities for quality improvement are identified. Faculty members are present and encouraged to raise important evidence-based considerations for the adverse outcomes, including issues of appropriate management (including preoperative decision-making, intra-operative technical issues and post-operative care).
Adult Cardiac Case Conference: This conference follows the division-wide Wednesday 7 am educational conference and runs from 8-9am. Directed by the adult cardiac surgical faculty, this is a case-based interactive conference. The topic for the week is often selected in advance on the basis of recent interesting or difficult cases which occurred during the prior week. Core cardiac surgical topics and problems are addressed each week with focus on diagnosis, work-up, echocardiogram/coronary angiography/ct scan review, and technical aspects of the conduct of the operation.
Thoracic Aortic Conference: This conference follows the adult cardiac case conference from 9am to 10am on Wednesdays. The style is interactive similar to that of the adult cardiac case conference. Often an oral board exam style is utilized. Key issues in diagnosis, management, and imaging review of thoracic aortic pathology are addressed. Specifically, acute and chronic dissection and thoracic aortic aneurysms are emphasized with both open and endovascular surgical approaches.
Cardiac Cath Conference: This is a multidisciplinary conference on Thursday afternoons held in conjunction with the Division of cardiology. It is a case presentation based conference with discussion among surgeons and cardiologists regarding diagnosis and management of cardiovascular pathology.
Congenital Case Conference: This conference is held weekly at Childrens Hospital of Pittsburgh and is attended by the resident on the congenital heart service. It is a multidisciplinary case conference of pediatric cardiologists, interventionalists, radiologists, and congenital heart surgeons. Patient physiologic data, echocardiography, angiography, and MRI/CT images are reviewed by the group as part of the decision making for future cases.
To address resident learning in the specific competencies, whenever possible, discussions in these conferences include the larger context of patient care, medical knowledge, interpersonal and communication skills, systems-based practice, professionalism, and practice-based learning and improvement. |
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Thoracic Surgery Conferences
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There are several teaching conferences devoted to the clinical and research education of the CT resident during their thoracic rotations. Each Tuesday morning from 7 am to 10 am, the residents rotating on the Thoracic services are excused from their clinical duties to attend three consecutive teaching conferences. Faculty members are also encouraged to postpone the start of their clinical activities until 10 am to facilitate resident education. Two faculty members are assigned to moderate the session each Tuesday morning on a rotating schedule. All conferences occur in the same location to facilitate participation.
Complex Benign Esophageal/SESATS Conference: The first conference alternates between two topics every other week. The first is a conference entirely devoted to complex benign esophageal disorders. Coordinated by thoracic surgery, the conference is a multidisciplinary endeavor that includes members of the Gastroenterology Division and the General Surgery Divisions. This conference alternates every other week with a review of questions from the Self-Education Self-Assessment in Thoracic Surgery (SESAT) topics in order to increase the residents and fellows medical knowledge and prepare them for the in-training and Board exams.
Thoracic Tumor Board: The second conference each Tuesday is the thoracic tumor board, which occurs from 8 am to 9 am. This conference includes members of the thoracic surgery Division, medical oncology, radiation oncology and pathology. On the first Tuesday of each month, this conference, titled The Thoracic Oncology Working Group, is dedicated to reviewing existing and new research protocols. Through participation in this conference, residents are exposed to the complexity and challenges of protocol development and implementation, and clinical research. They are also exposed to, and encouraged to participate in, the ensuing discussions regarding cutting-edge, multidisciplinary treatment of thoracic malignancies. For all other Tuesdays, cases are presented by thoracic surgery faculty and trainees to representatives of thoracic oncology, medical and radiation oncology, radiology and pulmonology. This format allows for a multidisciplinary discussion of the evaluation, staging/diagnosis and management options using patients with whom the resident has already interacted. Pathologists are present for this conference every two weeks and review the pathologic findings in a slide presentation, providing important learning opportunities in thoracic pathology and facilitating discussions regarding differential diagnosis and optimal strategies for tissue sampling. The thoracic tumor board is an ideal opportunity for the residents to understand the current limitations of therapy and the current status of clinical trials for various thoracic malignancies.
Thoracic Morbidity and Mortality Conference: The third conference conducted by the thoracic surgery division on Tuesday mornings is a weekly morbidity and mortality conference from 9 am to 10 am. Thoracic faculty members and residents from both thoracic and general surgery review the previous week’s adverse outcomes, including mortalities, and discuss management issues. At this conference, opportunities for quality improvement are identified. Faculty members are present and encouraged to raise important evidence-based considerations for the adverse outcomes, including issues of appropriate management (including preoperative decision-making, intra-operative technical issues and post-operative care).
Thoracic Surgery Journal Club: The second Tuesday of each month the Thoracic Surgery Journal Club takes place from 6 pm to 8pm at UPMC Presbyterian campus with dinner provided. Faculty members from the Division of Thoracic Surgery oversee the journal club to ensure relevance, guide the discussion and provide expert opinion and insight. Core topics in lung, esophageal and mediastinal disease processes are selected. Each journal club involves an in-depth review of landmark scientific papers to impart historical context. In addition, important new published findings are reviewed. Approximately 8-9 papers are identified by faculty and distributed prior to the journal club for discussion with the residents. The papers discussed at each journal club are placed on a password protected intranet site for future review should the residents want to obtain articles on a prior topic. Papers are assigned to one resident, who then provides a summary review of the hypothesis, aims, methods, results and conclusions. Faculty members then moderate a group discussion of the paper, encouraging and guiding residents in development of critical thinking and skills in evaluating study design, statistical testing and interpretation of findings. Residents are encouraged to think critically and important skills in evaluation of scientific literature are emphasized, including the appropriateness of statistical tests and study design.
In addition to these required conferences, members of the thoracic division conduct a weekly research conference that the thoracic residents are invited to attend whenever their clinical schedule allows. This conference reviews ongoing and possible future research projects. The Division has several NIH-funded investigators in basic science, translational and clinical research. In addition, a large clinical database has been developed that captures perioperative patient variables, facilitating hypothesis-driven research projects. Vera Donnenberg, Ph.D. coordinates the basic science research projects in a 2,000 square foot Thoracic Surgery lab and directs the basic science lab. During the course of the resident’s experience at UPMC, many get involved in related research projects and present their findings at a variety of national meetings, including the thoracic and general surgery national meetings.
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