Concordance Between Expert and Nonexpert Ratings of Condensed Video-Based Trainee Operative Performance Assessment

How Reliable are Single-Question Workplace-Based Assessments in Surgery?

OBJECTIVE

Workplace-based assessments (WBAs) play an important role in the assessment of surgical trainees. Because these assessment tools are utilized by a multitude of faculty, inter-rater reliability is important to consider when interpreting WBA data. Although there is evidence supporting the validity of many of these tools, inter-reliability evidence is lacking. This study aimed to evaluate the inter-rater reliability of multiple operative WBA tools utilized in general surgery residency.

DESIGN

General surgery residents and teaching faculty were recorded during 6 general surgery operations. Nine faculty raters each reviewed 6 videos and rated each resident on performance (using the Society for Improving Medical Professional Learning, or SIMPL, Performance Scale as well as the operative performance rating system (OPRS) Scale), entrustment (using the ten Cate Entrustment-Supervision Scale), and autonomy (using the Zwisch Scale). The ratings were reviewed for inter-rater reliability using percent agreement and intraclass correlations.

PARTICIPANTS

Nine faculty members viewed the videos and assigned ratings for multiple WBAs.

RESULTS

Absolute intraclass correlation coefficients for each scale ranged from 0.33 to 0.47.

CONCLUSIONS

All single-item WBA scales had low to moderate inter-rater reliability. While rater training may improve inter-rater reliability for single observations, many observations by many raters are needed to reliably assess trainee performance in the workplace.

The association between video-based assessment of intraoperative technical performance and patient outcomes: a systematic review

BACKGROUND

Efforts to improve surgical safety and outcomes have traditionally placed little emphasis on intraoperative performance, partly due to difficulties in measurement. Video-based assessment (VBA) provides an opportunity for blinded and unbiased appraisal of surgeon performance. Therefore, we aimed to systematically review the existing literature on the association between intraoperative technical performance, measured using VBA, and patient outcomes.

METHODS

Major databases (Medline, Embase, Cochrane Database, and Web of Science) were systematically searched for studies assessing the association of intraoperative technical performance measured by tools supported by validity evidence with short-term (≤ 30 days) and/or long-term postoperative outcomes. Study quality was assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. Results were appraised descriptively as study heterogeneity precluded meta-analysis.

RESULTS

A total of 11 observational studies were identified involving 8 different procedures in foregut/bariatric (n = 4), colorectal (n = 4), urologic (n = 2), and hepatobiliary surgery (n = 1). The number of surgeons assessed ranged from 1 to 34; patient sample size ranged from 47 to 10,242. High risk of bias was present in 5 of 8 studies assessing short-term outcomes and 2 of 6 studies assessing long-term outcomes. Short-term outcomes were reported in 8 studies (i.e., morbidity, mortality, and readmission), while 6 reported long-term outcomes (i.e., cancer outcomes, weight loss, and urinary continence). Better intraoperative performance was associated with fewer postoperative complications (6 of 7 studies), reoperations (3 of 4 studies), and readmissions (1 of 4 studies). Long-term outcomes were less commonly investigated, with mixed results.

CONCLUSION

Current evidence supports an association between superior intraoperative technical performance measured using surgical videos and improved short-term postoperative outcomes. Intraoperative performance analysis using video-based assessment represents a promising approach to surgical quality-improvement.

Multicentric validation of EndoDigest: a computer vision platform for video documentation of the critical view of safety in laparoscopic cholecystectomy

BACKGROUND

A computer vision (CV) platform named EndoDigest was recently developed to facilitate the use of surgical videos. Specifically, EndoDigest automatically provides short video clips to effectively document the critical view of safety (CVS) in laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC). The aim of the present study is to validate EndoDigest on a multicentric dataset of LC videos.

METHODS

LC videos from 4 centers were manually annotated with the time of the cystic duct division and an assessment of CVS criteria. Incomplete recordings, bailout procedures and procedures with an intraoperative cholangiogram were excluded. EndoDigest leveraged predictions of deep learning models for workflow analysis in a rule-based inference system designed to estimate the time of the cystic duct division. Performance was assessed by computing the error in estimating the manually annotated time of the cystic duct division. To provide concise video documentation of CVS, EndoDigest extracted video clips showing the 2 min preceding and the 30 s following the predicted cystic duct division. The relevance of the documentation was evaluated by assessing CVS in automatically extracted 2.5-min-long video clips.

RESULTS

144 of the 174 LC videos from 4 centers were analyzed. EndoDigest located the time of the cystic duct division with a mean error of 124.0 ± 270.6 s despite the use of fluorescent cholangiography in 27 procedures and great variations in surgical workflows across centers. The surgical evaluation found that 108 (75.0%) of the automatically extracted short video clips documented CVS effectively.

CONCLUSIONS

EndoDigest was robust enough to reliably locate the time of the cystic duct division and efficiently video document CVS despite the highly variable workflows. Training specifically on data from each center could improve results; however, this multicentric validation shows the potential for clinical translation of this surgical data science tool to efficiently document surgical safety.

A comparative analysis of video-based surgical assessment: is evaluation of the entire critical portion of the operation necessary?

BACKGROUND

Previous studies of video-based operative assessments using crowd sourcing have established the efficacy of non-expert evaluations. Our group sought to establish the equivalence of abbreviating video content for operative assessment.

METHODS

A single institution video repository of six core general surgery operations was submitted for evaluation. Each core surgery included three unique surgical performances, totaling 18 unique operative videos. Each video was edited using four different protocols based on the critical portion of the operation: (1) custom edited critical portion (2) condensed critical portion (3) first 20 s of every minute of the critical portion, and (4) first 10 s of every minute of the critical portion. In total, 72 individually edited operative videos were submitted to the C-SATS (Crowd-Sourced Assessment of Technical Skills) platform (C-SATS) for evaluation. Aggregate score for study protocol was compared using the Kruskal-Wallis test. A multivariable, multilevel mixed-effects model was constructed to predict total skill assessment scores.

RESULTS

Median video lengths for each protocol were: custom, 6:20 (IQR 5:27-7:28); condensed, 10:35 (8:50-12:06); 10 s, 4:35 (2:11-6:09); and 20 s, 9:09 (4:20-12:14). There was no difference in aggregate median score among the four study protocols: custom, 15.7 (14.4-16.2); condensed, 15.8 (15.2-16.4); 10 s, 15.8 (15.3-16.1); 20 s, 16.0 (15.1-16.3); χ2 = 1.661, p = 0.65. Regression modeling demonstrated a significant, but minimal effect of the 10 s and 20 s editing protocols compared to the custom method on individual video score: condensed, + 0.33 (- 0.05-0.70), p = 0.09; 10 s, + 0.29 (0.04-0.55), p = 0.03; 20 s, + 0.40 (0.15-0.66), p = 0.002.

CONCLUSION

A standardized protocol for video editing abbreviated surgical performances yields reproducible assessment of surgical aptitude when assessed by non-experts.

Video Coaching in Surgical Education: Utility, Opportunities, and Barriers to Implementation

OBJECTIVE

This review discusses the literature on Video-Based Coaching (VBC) and explores the barriers to widespread implementation.

DESIGN

A search was performed on Scopus and PubMed for the terms "operation," "operating room," "surgery," "resident," "house staff," "graduate medical education," "teaching," "coaching," "assessment," "reflection," "camera," and "video" on July 27, 2021, in English. This yielded 828 results. A single author reviewed the titles and abstracts and eliminated any results that did not pertain to operative VBC or assessment. All bibliographies were reviewed, and appropriate manuscripts were included in this study. This resulted in a total of 52 manuscripts included in this review.

SETTING/PARTICIPANTS

Original, peer-reviewed studies focused on VBC or assessment.

RESULTS

VBC has been both subjectively and objectively found to be a valuable educational tool. Nearly every study of video recording in the operating room found that subjects, including surgical residents and seasoned surgeons alike, overwhelmingly considered it a useful, non-redundant adjunct to their training. Most studies that evaluated skill acquisition via standardized assessment tools found that surgical residents who underwent a VBC program had significant improvements compared to their counterparts who did not undergo video review. Despite this evidence of effectiveness, fewer than 5% of residency programs employ video recording in the operating room. Barriers to implementation include significant time commitments for proposed coaching curricula and difficulty with integration of video cameras into the operating room.

CONCLUSIONS

VBC has significant educational benefits, but a scalable curriculum has not been developed. An optimal solution would ensure technical ease and expediency, simple, high-quality cameras, immediate review, and overcoming entrenched surgical norms and culture.

OR black box and surgical control tower: Recording and streaming data and analytics to improve surgical care

Effective and safe surgery results from a complex sociotechnical process prone to human error. Acquiring large amount of data on surgical care and modelling the process of surgery with artificial intelligence's computational methods could shed lights on system strengths and limitations and enable computer-based smart assistance. With this vision in mind, surgeons and computer scientists have joined forces in a novel discipline called Surgical Data Science. In this regard, operating room (OR) black boxes and surgical control towers are being developed to systematically capture comprehensive data on surgical procedures and to oversee and assist during operating rooms activities, respectively. Most of the early Surgical Data Science works have focused on understanding risks and resilience factors affecting surgical safety, the context and workflow of procedures, and team behaviors. These pioneering efforts in sensing and analyzing surgical activities, together with the advent of precise robotic actuators, bring surgery on the verge of a fourth revolution characterized by smart assistance in perceptual, cognitive and physical tasks. Barriers to implement this vision exist, but the surgical-technical partnerships set by ambitious efforts such as the OR black box and the surgical control tower are working to overcome these roadblocks and translate the vision and early works described in the manuscript into value for patients, surgeons and health systems.

Implementation of the ACS/ APDS Resident Skills Curriculum reveals a need for rater training: An analysis using generalizability theory

BACKGROUND

The American College of Surgeons (ACS)/Association of Program Directors in Surgery (APDS) Resident Skills Curriculum includes validated task-specific checklists and global rating scales (GRS) for Objective Structured Assessment of Technical Skills (OSATS). However, it does not include instructions on use of these assessment tools. Since consistency of ratings is a key feature of assessment, we explored rater reliability for two skills.

METHODS

Surgical faculty assessed hand-sewn bowel and vascular anastomoses in real-time using the OSATS GRS. OSATS were video-taped and independently evaluated by a research resident and surgical attending. Rating consistency was estimated using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) and generalizability analysis.

RESULTS

Three-rater ICC coefficients across 24 videos ranged from 0.12 to 0.75. Generalizability reliability coefficients ranged from 0.55 to 0.8. Percent variance attributable to raters ranged from 2.7% to 32.1%. Pairwise agreement showed considerable inconsistency for both tasks.

CONCLUSIONS

Variability of ratings for these two skills indicate the need for rater training to increase scoring agreement and decrease rater variability for technical skill assessments.