Educating the Next Generation of Surgeons on Surgical Technique

An increasing body of evidence demonstrates that adherence to specific operative techniques during cancer surgery directly improves key patient outcomes, including survival and quality of life. For many patients with cancer, surgery is the only treatment modality with the potential to cure. Standards for the technical conduct of cancer operations are increasingly used to guide practice and are vital for ensuring the generalizability of clinical trials incorporating oncologic surgery. However, data to support them are not uniformly available and measuring quality can be extremely difficult. This session will discuss the value, importance, and measurement of technical quality. The session will review the evidence supporting technical quality standards, discuss their roles in surgical quality improvement and education, and describe the clinical infrastructures required to measure them.