Session Design Submission Review

This interactive workshop introduces Universal Design for Learning (UDL), a research-based framework for designing flexible learning environments that empower everyone to have agency over their own learning. It allows educators and learners to set clear goals, anticipate environmental barriers, create meaningful options, and fully embrace human variability to accommodate individual learning differences. The principles of UDL are easily transferable to any kind of teaching and learning scenario, including patient and physician interactions. 

Of note, traditional surgical education can inadvertently create barriers for learners with varied backgrounds, learning needs, and cognitive profiles. UDL provides a proactive framework to design curriculum that works for all learners from the start, rather than retrofitting accommodations later. This design results in higher educational outcomes for all learners in the surgical learning environment, regardless of need.

In this workshop, we’ll explore the core principles of UDL and their direct application to surgical teaching both inside and outside the operating room. This interactive workshop is designed for all surgical educators teaching medical students and surgical residents. 

Principle I: Provide Multiple Means of Engagement.
During the workshop, the participants will learn and apply strategies to motivate and sustain learner interest in complex surgical concepts and long training pathways. This includes fostering collaboration, self-regulation, and connecting learning activities to real-world surgical significance.

Principle II: Provide Multiple Means of Representation.
Participants will explore techniques for presenting surgical knowledge, such as anatomy, pathophysiology, and procedural steps, in varied formats. We’ll move beyond text and standard slides to incorporate diverse media, conceptual mapping, surgical simulation demonstrations, and visual supports that illuminate expert thinking.

Principle III: Provide Multiple Means of Action & Expression.
Participants will also learn how to apply different methods that allow learners to demonstrate their surgical understanding in flexible ways. This involves designing diverse assessment options beyond the standard oral presentation or multiple-choice exam, such as procedural video analysis, annotated intraoperative photographs, narrative reflections on critical cases, and structured deliberate practice sessions.

After exploring the main principles of UDL, participants will work in small groups to redesign a surgical teaching session to make it more inclusive and accessible using the concepts learned. Groups will then share their redesigned activities and receive feedback from the larger group.

Finally, participants will begin developing a personalized action plan to pilot at least one UDL informed modification to a specific teaching session or assessment at their home institution, noting how the modification will make the session or assessment more accessible to all participants.

Participants will leave the workshop equipped with immediately applicable tools and strategies to enhance their teaching, improve learner outcomes, and foster an inclusive educational climate that benefits all learners, especially those needing diverse support.

Summary: From its early application in elementary school through higher education and in business, applying growth mindset theory has resulted in greater academic achievement, improved well-being, greater organizational engagement and improved motivation for learning. The medical education literature has repeatedly called for the incorporation of growth mindset thinking and culture—yet, the practicalities of how to do this have remained elusive for most educators. Our group has published foundational work in defining the language of growth mindset in surgical feedback and within the operating room environment, as well as in understanding the implications of using growth minded language on motivation. We have also implemented faculty and resident development workshops. Workshop participants will leave the workshop with the ability to recognize fixed-mindset triggers, re-frame situations with growth-mindedness, use growth-minded language when giving feedback, and learn to receive critical feedback with a growth-approach. This learning will be facilitated through interactive communication exercises,  demonstrations using artificial intelligence, and the provision of a “growth mindset” codebook to attendees.

Surgical education is undergoing rapid transformation, driven by advances in pedagogy and technology. However, much of education research continues to emphasize interventions (e.g., curriculum, technology) without fully accounting for the complex and evolving needs of users (e.g., learners, educators) and the broader educational ecosystem.

Human-Centered Design (HCD) offers a rigorous, user-centered methodology that complements traditional approaches by prioritizing usability, accessibility, and stakeholder engagement. Grounded in the four core principles of empathy, iteration, collaboration, and accessibility, HCD employs empathetic inquiry and iterative co-design to uncover unmet needs, generate contextually relevant solutions, and improve implementation fidelity. Its central premise is to approach problem-solving by deeply understanding the experiences and challenges of all users within the system.

HCD has gained increasing traction in healthcare innovation over the past decade, demonstrating its value in improving user experience, intervention effectiveness, and adoption. Within surgical education, HCD provides a particularly powerful framework for curriculum development and technology integration. By identifying unmet educational needs, accommodating diverse learning styles and abilities, accounting for issues of access and accessibility, and fostering engagement across stakeholders, HCD is a powerful methodology to enhance both the design and delivery of surgical education for a changing world.

The HCD process includes five phases:

1) Preparation Phase: Define the design challenge by mapping the ecosystem, identifying stakeholders, and understanding user needs and context.

2) Inspiration Phase: Conduct qualitative research to uncover key themes, generate insights, and identify design opportunities.

3) Ideation Phase: Generate ideas collaboratively through brainstorming and co-design, then refine concepts through iterative prototyping and user feedback.

4) Implementation Phase: Translate refined prototypes into deployable interventions by developing scalable models, integrating with existing systems and workflows, and ensuring usability and accessibility across diverse user groups.

5) Evaluation Phase: Assess intervention and implementation effectiveness using qualitative and quantitative data.

This workshop will equip surgical educators with the tools to apply HCD to surgical education innovation with a specific focus on the Inspiration and Ideation phases. Through interactive activities and case-based learning, participants will practice user-centered approaches to framing educational challenges, conducting qualitative inquiry, synthesizing insights, and collaboratively generating solutions.

Participants will first be introduced to the HCD process, its distinguishing features, and its relevance to advancing surgical education using a case study. During the Inspiration Phase, participants will learn how to frame design challenges, collect data from key stakeholders, and ascribe contextual meaning to the data by developing “insight statements.” During the Ideation Phase, participants will learn how to adapt “insight statements” into “how might we questions,” which reframe key learnings from the Inspiration Phase into actionable design opportunities. Participants will review the rules for facilitating “Brainstorm Sessions,” which are interdisciplinary co-design workshops, then they will learn to generate creative solutions and organize these results. Finally, participants will have the opportunity to translate the outputs of the “Brainstorm Session” into prototypes, which are tangible, low-fidelity representations of solutions, and learn how to select a prototype. Upon completion, attendees will be equipped to approach surgical education challenges using a more creative, innovative, and user-centric approach.

Coaching is an important tool for surgical educators but effective coaching styles are not widely taught. A workshop focused on coaching trainees and peers would be important to offer an avenue to develop this skill set among surgical educators. The workshop will

As a surgical education center that hosts upwards of 20 outreach events annually, the Washington University Institute for Surgical Education (WISE) team will demonstrate how outreach programs can bring value to your own simulation centers. Our surgical education outreach programs provide opportunities that uniquely explore the basics of surgical healthcare and are targeted towards learners interested in pursuing careers in medicine, especially learners from underserved or under-resourced areas. The workshop will build off of our existing model but will be applicable and scalable to participant’s individual institution’s needs and capabilities.

This workshop is designed for surgical education professionals (PDs/APDs, sim center directors, residents, fellows, administrators, technicians, and medical students), chiefly those interested in community outreach initiatives. It aims to familiarize participants with tips and tricks to engage local communities and build sustainable outreach programs within their own simulation centers.

Our goal is to share nearly a decade of WISE’s successes and challenges in outreach, providing participants with a practical framework and adaptable tools to design programs that fit their own communities and institutions.

At the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:

1. Identify their own target audiences and develop their program’s primary outreach goals (ie. exposing low resourced, medically focused learners to basic career choices within the realm of surgery)
2. Create a low risk, high yield environment for participants’ selected outreach audience
3. Demonstrate pathways for identifying community participants
4. Formulate strategies for recruitment of outreach volunteers, along with funding sources and partners
5. Plan session agendas for outreach events
6. Generate action items to ensure outreach events yield high ROI
7. Established milestones for data collection and program longevity

      Negative sentiments toward surgery are not a novel concept, as concerns about lifestyle, hierarchy, and burnout have long been a part of conversations regarding surgical workplace culture. An overlooked aspect, however, is the amplification of these views in online discourse where surgeons themselves are notably absent. Across platforms such as Reddit, Twitter (X), and TikTok, discussions of surgical education and workplace culture are increasingly shaped by those outside the specialty, leaving undergraduate and medical students exposed to unbalanced and often discouraging portrayals. Compared to other specialties such as family medicine or pediatrics, online discourse surrounding surgery is statistically more negative and features significantly fewer attending surgeons contributing to the conversation. This gap not only reinforces stereotypes discouraging qualified candidates, but also deprives trainees of mentorship and insight into the meaningful, purpose-driven aspects of surgical life. For surgical educators, this trend marks both a warning and an opportunity, with online discourse and sentiments revealing not only how surgical culture is perceived, but also tangible ways to improve it.

      This workshop, titled “Beyond the Operating Room: Combating Online Misconceptions and Building Surgeon Representation,” focuses on how surgical educators can understand, reframe, and proactively respond to the online discourse surrounding surgery. Participants will explore how digital sentiment can directly influence specialty choice, identity formation, and perceptions of surgical culture while also discussing strategies to serve as narrative stewards for the next generation.

      The session begins with a visual presentation drawn from research studies and sentiment analysis of how surgery is portrayed online. Through word clouds, sentiment maps, and anonymized online examples of trainee discussions, participants will gain a clear view of the recurring themes that fuel skepticism toward surgical careers. This framing sets the stage for collaborative work on how to transform these narratives into opportunities for advocacy, mentorship, and representation, highlighting powerful aspects of surgery absent due to the lack of representation.

      In breakout-group “strategy jams,” attendees will tackle realistic scenarios derived from online discourse and student feedback. Each group will seek to identify the underlying concerns reflected in their scenario, then practice reframing them into constructive, authentic messaging that highlights the realities of surgical practice such as teamwork, purpose, innovation, and patient impact. These activities will engage participants in developing both educational responses for trainees as well as public messaging strategies for broader online audiences.

      Groups will then participate in a “gallery walk” and live Delphi-style polling to prioritize the most effective reframed narratives and strategies. This will allow for a consensus “toolkit” surgeons can use to increase their online presence, navigate mentorship, and integrate positive storytelling into program culture and recruitment. Participants can bring this toolkit back to their institutions, empowering them to incorporate digital literacy and narrative awareness into their teaching and to model professional engagement online.

      Ultimately, the session moves beyond recognizing negativity, focusing on equipping surgical educators with the skills to ensure that the story of surgery is told by those who live it, not merely by those who comment on it.

In academia, a well-crafted Letter of Recommendation (LOR) is not merely a formality; it can be a critical determinant of a candidate’s tenure and promotion. For surgical educators, often juggling intense clinical demands with administrative responsibilities, crafting these pivotal endorsements of expertise and skill can feel like an additional burden, with variable outcomes due to differing levels of experience and writing acumen.  This session, “The Science of Writing a Good Letter of Recommendation,” is intended to transform this often-daunting task into a strategic advantage for both the writer and the recipient by providing a comprehensive framework that elevates the quality and impact of every letter produced.  The structure and content of LORs will be discussed with an emphasis on what critical information should be included: clinical performance, technical skills, professionalism, research engagement, and leadership potential. Emphasis will be placed on transforming anecdotal observations into quantifiable achievements and specific examples, leveraging the “show, don’t tell” principle that underpins persuasive writing.

The “Science” component will delve deeply into implicit and explicit biases to avoid that can inadvertently undermine an otherwise strong candidate. Participants will learn to identify common pitfalls such as gendered language, “effort” vs. “achievement” bias, the “likeability” trap, and the tendency to over-praise or under-praise certain demographics. We will discuss strategies to mitigate these biases, ensuring every letter reflects a fair, objective, and equitable evaluation of competence and potential, rather than subjective impressions.  The goal is to strategically position a candidate’s experiences to align with the specific values and requirements of target medical schools or professional societies, moving beyond generic praise to powerful, personalized endorsements.

Tools, Skills, and Information Surgical Educators Will Take Back:

Participants will gain a deeper understanding of the critical elements that make an LOR impactful, the ethical considerations inherent in their creation, and the strategic importance of tailoring each letter.

Workshop Description:
As Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) become an integral part of workplace-based assessment in surgical specialties, faculty and clinical competency committee members increasingly face the challenge of synthesizing complex EPA data into transparent and fair entrustment decisions, both formative and summative. Traditional approaches often lack clear links between overall scores and decision-making. This interactive workshop will guide participants through a framework and associated tools in a grounded an approachable way, drawing on the latest scholarship in educational measurement and EPAs.

Workshop Structure:

1. Foundations and Challenges:
   The session will begin with small-group icebreakers to surface participants’ current practices and pain points in translating EPA ratings into entrustment decisions. Using illustrative cases, the facilitators will highlight common pitfalls and outline the need for approaches that both synthesize and retain the evidentiary value of each assessment.
2. Evidentiary Reasoning and Evidence Tables:
   The core didactic portion will break down complex concepts with accessible language and hands-on visuals. Participants will learn how evidence tables—populated by expert opinion, empirical data, or both—connect EPA performance levels to underlying entrustability claims. Facilitators will walk through step-by-step examples to translate multiple workplace-based EPA ratings into scores that communicate the likelihood a trainee can perform a clinical activity to a desired standard. Attendees will see how these methods make the logic behind entrustment decisions explicit and reproducible, enhancing both validity and transparency.
3. Interactive Application:
   Small groups will work with example data sets, applying provided evidence tables to calculate probabilities and update entrustment estimates for a simulated trainee over multiple assessment encounters. Groups will discuss how rater stringency and case complexity can be incorporated into entrustment decisions. Participants will reflect on the difference between traditional summary statistics and interpretable, individualized profiles generated through evidence-based reasoning.
4. Building Trust and Next Steps:
   The workshop will conclude with an open discussion on integrating probabilistic thinking into local assessment systems. Strategies will include how to communicate the meaning of summary scores to stakeholders and the importance of transparency and explainability (including how well the process supports the emerging use of AI in assessment). Participants will receive a practical toolkit with templates for evidence tables and step-by-step calculation guides.

Summary:
This workshop empowers clinical educators and CCC members to harness EPA data with modern probabilistic reasoning, supporting defensible, individualized summative entrustment and improved trust in assessment outcomes. Participants will leave ready to champion data-driven, transparent assessment practices in their programs.

In recent years, there has been a loss of traditional personnel-selection metrics for incoming surgical residents, with the transition away from graded clerkships, the removal of USMLE Step 2 CS, and the USMLE Step 1 becoming pass/fail. We are now facing a dearth of objective metrics by which to assess pre-residency competency; however, many of these metrics that were traditionally used for selection were used out of convenience. They were not all validated, evidence-based metrics that reliably predicted success in early residency training. Although their loss has created temporary challenges, it also uniquely positions our field to generate a new, better system for personnel selection from the ground up. 

While there have been existing methods to define medical student competence as a whole (ie, the dean’s letter,  letters of recommendation, OSCE, shelf exams, AAMC undergraduate EPAs, etc) these methods have not all been validated as a selection tool. They also may not precisely assess all of the skills our incoming surgical workforce needs in our modern era. In order to create an evidence-based and validated system of residency selection, it is critical to first define the skills, competencies, and traits we are selecting for. 

We are therefore using the following prompt in an interactive workshop designed for learners to take part in a modified Delphi Process, and become familiar with this research tool.

Prompt: “What specific and measurable competencies, traits, and skills should every incoming surgical resident possess?”

 A Delphi Process is a method of achieving consensus that is particularly useful in an area where knowledge is imprecise or incomplete, and where collective expert gestalt may play a more valuable role than individual opinions or literature review alone. This is a particularly useful tool in surgical education, where much of our evidence base is still being built. This research method builds on both qualitative and quantitative methods to create expert consensus on important issues. It is an integral part of a surgical educator and researcher’s toolbox- whether this process is used to inform local quality improvement or policy change at a learner’s institution, or even to build national guidelines. Being familiar with this process also helps surgeons better understand literature and guidelines that have been built using this method. 

We therefore offer this workshop so participants can experience a modified Delphi Process in real time as an immersive learning activity. The Delphi Process involves a diverse group of key stakeholders. We therefore invite and encourage participation from anyone who is interested, including trainees, medical students, non-physician educators,  advisors, and faculty. 

Background:

Surgical learners face high-stakes decision-making in an emotionally, intellectually, and physically demanding environment. This primes students, residents, and teachers to encounter shame. Shame is an emotion wherein someone experiences a feeling of being globally flawed, deficient, and/or unworthy. Shame is increasingly recognized as a driver of intrapersonal distress and dysfunctional team dynamics in healthcare, with a growing body of scholarly literature describing its effects. Applying awareness and understanding of shame, i.e., a “shame lens,” to the work of becoming a surgeon is a novel way of understanding impaired well-being in the surgical learning environment. Shame competence is an emerging framework to facilitate constructive engagement with shame by mitigating its harmful effects while leveraging its prosocial potential.

Participants in this 90-minute workshop will engage with the shame lens, shame compass, and shame competence conceptual framework through didactics and interactive small-group case studies with hands-on activities. The target audience includes medical students, residents, fellows, and faculty. The facilitators will include faculty, resident, and student leaders who study shame in the surgical learning environment. They will organize the session around the five pillars of shame competence: awareness of shame, recognition of shame, avoiding inducing shame, proactive support, and transforming organizations (Lancet, 2024). Additionally, the facilitators will utilize Nathanson’s Compass of Shame to help participants recognize common reactions to shame at the individual level (Nathanson, 1992). Session participants will be equipped with the tools and skills needed to drive positive cultural change at their institutions through productive engagement with shame.

Part I: What is Shame?

Facilitators will help participants build their awareness of shame by discussing its definition, manifestations, and social functions. Participants will gain an understanding of the psychology of shame and how it influences behaviors. Participants will engage in an open-ended small group activity where they acknowledge the presence of shame in surgical education. Facilitators will solicit examples from the small groups of times they believe they observed or experienced shame in their contexts. The facilitators will use the Shame Compass to analyze the effects of shame in the given scenarios.

Part II: Responding to Shame

Facilitators will transition to a small group activity where we discuss strategies for avoiding inducing shame under circumstances where surgical learners are at increased risk of a shame reaction.  Recognizing opportunities to avoid inducing shame, participants will discuss strategies for proactively supporting learners they identify as experiencing a shame response (drawing again from the Shame Compass). We will highlight the pro-social potential that exists in the shame response with particular attention paid to catalyzed professional identity formation and community building. Examples will be drawn from original research being conducted on the experience of shame in surgical education (CESERT-funded), with opportunities to explore intentional shaming behavior, unintentionally inflicted shame across hierarchies, and shame that arises in response to negative clinical outcomes. Special attention will be paid to M&M conference and error response. Key points about how to engage productively with this inevitable emotion will be emphasized with brief returns to didactic instruction from the facilitators.

General Surgery residencies across the U.S. have been experiencing a “Baby Boom” since 2000, with up to 40% of general surgery residents having a child during their residency. Despite this, many surgical program directors remain unsure about policies regarding accommodations for nursing mothers and the availability of financial support for fertility treatments. Furthermore, a majority of surgical residents and medical students express concern that becoming pregnant during residency will be perceived negatively. Addressing these gaps and barriers to family-friendly surgical residencies represents an important step to supporting diversity and inclusion in surgery.

This workshop will utilize an interactive small group discussion format with large group debriefs, to help attendees recognize both challenges and opportunities in fostering a family-friendly culture within surgical training programs. Participants will gain practical guidance on developing effective lactation and family leave policies. This workshop will be especially valuable  for program directors, associate program-directors, vice chairs of education, department chairs, faculty, and trainees interested in improving support for resident parents.

The operating room and healthcare at large are significant contributors to the global climate crisis—and are simultaneously burdened by its effects. Efforts to improve health cannot succeed without addressing the social, economic, and ecological forces that underlie the well-being of individuals and communities worldwide. As surgeons, we are uniquely positioned to drive change. This 90-minute interactive workshop will highlight the environmental impact of OR energy consumption, showcase successful sustainability initiatives from across the country, and provide attendees with tools to design and implement similar quality improvement projects at their own institutions. Participants will learn who the key stakeholders are, how to measure progress, and strategies to successfully “pitch” their projects to leadership. To make the session engaging and memorable, we will emulate the format of Shark Tank—but in this case, the “Sharks” will be Dolphins. Working in small groups, attendees will develop and present their sustainability proposals, receiving feedback and resources from faculty mentors. By the end of the session, participants will leave with actionable ideas, practical strategies, and the confidence to lead sustainability efforts in their home institutions.

Many clinician educators are deeply interested in educational research but are often unsure where to begin. Starting a research project from scratch can feel daunting, especially when facing challenges such as obtaining IRB approval, dealing with small sample sizes, limited generalizability from single-institution studies, and designing a methodologically sound study. This interactive workshop is designed to bridge that gap by equipping participants with the knowledge, framework, tools, and confidence to initiate research using existing national databases relevant to surgical education. Organizations like ACGME, ABS, SIMPL, AAMC, and NRMP maintain large, high-quality, deidentified datasets that enable rigorous educational studies using quantitative, qualitative, or even mixed-method approaches.

This 90-minute, scaffolded, example-driven session is ideal for residents, clinician educators, and early-career faculty who want to pursue educational research but seek a structured and practical starting point or who are looking to expand their current surgical education research interests.

Module 1: Seeing What’s Possible – Examples of Database Research
We will begin by reviewing exemplar studies that illustrate the possible uses of national datasets from large-scale quantitative analyses of training outcomes to qualitative evaluations of learner experiences using open-ended responses.

Interactive activity: Participants work in small groups to dissect example study summaries, identifying research designs, data sources, and analytic approaches used. This exercise highlights how methodological choices can align with different educational questions, and inspires participants to imagine possibilities beyond traditional survey studies.

Module 2: Database Selection and Research Process

We will provide an overview of major national databases, examining their structure, available variables, and suitability for different research frameworks. Participants will learn to distinguish databases that support descriptive/correlational studies of trainees and programs, enable linkage to clinical outcomes, facilitate qualitative or mixed-methods studies, and allow for instrument validation. We then will walk through the practical steps of launching a database study: structuring research questions, drafting data request applications, understanding IRB requirements, navigating data use agreements, managing multi-database linkage procedures, and planning analyses.

Interactive exercise: Participants work through case scenarios, matching research questions to databases and troubleshooting common challenges such as missing variables, linkage approval, and data request revisions.

Module 3: Action Plan

Participants will work independently to develop their own research proposal, with facilitators circulating to provide guidance and feedback. Each participant will identify their research type, select appropriate database(s), draft a research question, create an analytic plan, and outlines key steps and timeline for their study. Participants will then share their plans in small groups for peer feedback before finalizing. Deliverable: A one-page research action plan ready to discuss with research mentors or collaborators.

By the end of the workshop, participants will have both the conceptual framework and the practical tools to confidently launch their own national database study in surgical education.

Health professions educators are seeking safe, scalable ways for trainees to practice difficult conversations, such as disclosing medical errors, while reducing the costs and scheduling demands of using standardized patients with faculty‑led debriefs. This interactive, 90‑minute workshop demonstrates a simple, no‑coding approach to building and running AI‑based role‑plays in ChatGPT, then guides participants to create a take‑home version for their own programs.

We begin with a brief overview of the training gap and how AI simulation can complement, rather than replace, human simulation. In this session, a general surgeon with no computer‑science background will demonstrate how the simulator was built and showcase the automated debrief it generates, followed by a live demo with a facilitator and a volunteer participant. A short, step‑by‑step walkthrough will then prepare teams for group work.

This is a hands-on session designed for 4–8 tables, each with approximately 6–10 participants.Teams will use a concise prompt guide (~1 page) and a full instruction template (≤8,000 characters) that includes privacy, equity, and scope guardrails. Working collaboratively, participants will:
(1) Draft a de‑identified 150–200‑word surgical error case.
(2) Create a title and ≤300‑character description (refined with ChatGPT).
(3) Insert the case into the instruction template with guardrails (refined with ChatGPT).
(4) Add conversation starters (e.g., introduction, function/role, acknowledge, plan next steps).
(5) Optionally upload brief documents to inform the simulator (if your plan supports file upload; otherwise paste short excerpts).
(6) Run 5–7‑minute test interactions, record observations, make improvements, and re‑test the adjustments.

If timing allows, one or two tables will role‑play their scenarios with volunteers from another group. The session concludes with a brief debriefing, offering practical prompting tips for eliciting constructive feedback from the simulator and outlining next steps for local implementation. Participants will leave with a working prompt/simulation for error‑disclosure role‑play, the concise prompt guide and full instruction template; exemplar conversation starters, and a short debrief checklist.

Target audience: health professions educators (with emphasis on surgery), faculty involved in simulation and assessment, and trainees.

Preparation & setup: bring a de‑identified case (or use our provided examples as a starter). In the session, at least one internet-connected laptop per team is recommended (helpful but not mandatory). A free ChatGPT account is sufficient for the prompt‑based build; teams with paid ChatGPT (e.g., Plus, Pro, Team/Edu/Enterprise) may optionally save their prompt as a Custom GPT after the session. Free users can use but cannot create new Custom GPTs.

This session supports ASE’s priorities by fostering active learning, practical skill‑building, and a scalable, reproducible approach to expanding access to difficult conversation practice across diverse institutional settings.

Introduction

Surgical educators and trainees are increasingly expected to engage in education research, yet many face challenges managing the labor-intensive steps of literature review, synthesis, and manuscript preparation. Generative artificial intelligence (AI) offers new opportunities to streamline these processes when used intentionally and ethically.

This interactive 60-minute workshop introduces participants to two complementary strategies for integrating AI into research workflows: 1) AI Persona Building using ChatGPT’s (or Google Gems) Custom Instructions feature to create context-specific research mentors or writing assistants, and 2) The application of the ACCU Framework (Acquisition, Collection, Crystallization, Utilization) described by Chu (2024) to structure how AI tools can support various stage of the research cycle. Together, these approaches empower participants to use free AI tools to enhance research productivity in surgical education.

Learning Objectives:
• Participants can design an AI persona tailored to their research needs using ChatGPT or Google.
• Participants can refine and evaluate AI outputs using simple meta-prompting strategies for accuracy and clarity.
• Participants can apply the ACCU Framework to integrate AI tools into each stage of the research process—from literature acquisition to manuscript utilization.

Description and Activities
The session begins with a brief overview of how generative AI can enhance research efficiency and foster scholarly engagement in surgical education.

AI Persona Building & Meta Prompting:
Facilitators will demonstrate how to use ChatGPT’s Custom Instructions and persona builder tools to design a personalized AI research assistant or mentor persona. Participants will complete a “Persona Blueprint” defining the AI’s role (e.g., systematic review coach or academic writing partner), expertise, and tone. They will then test and iteratively refine their personas through guided prompts and short meta-prompting exercises.

The ACCU Framework Application:
Facilitators will introduce the ACCU framework— Acquisition, Collection, Crystallization, and Utilization — and practice mapping free AI tools to each phase:
• Acquisition: Use Perplexity, Consensus, or ResearchRabbit to discover and summarize literature.
• Collection: Manage and annotate references with Zotero or ZoteroBib.
• Crystallization: Synthesize insights via NotebookLM, Elicit, or SciSpace.
• Utilization: Draft or refine manuscripts with ChatGPT or Grammarly.

Participants will sketch their personalized AI-integrated research workflow and share takeaways on responsible adoption in academic practice.

Outcomes and Relevance
Participants will leave with a customized AI persona for research support, a mapped ACCU workflow tailored to their scholarly goals, and practical strategies for integrating AI tools into their educational research. By strengthening AI literacy among educators and trainees, this session aligns with ASE’s mission to promote innovation, scholarship, and excellence in surgical education.

Target Audience:
This interactive workshop is designed for surgical and clinical educators at all levels—faculty, fellows, residents, and teaching staff—who want to enhance their teaching effectiveness in high-acuity, time-pressured environments such as the operating room, wards, clinic, and simulation centers.

Overview:
Clinical teaching often occurs in fast-paced, unpredictable settings where educators must balance patient care, supervision, and instruction. This workshop poses a guiding question—“Am I an effective educator?”—and provides a structured framework and practical tools for self-assessment, adaptability, and continuous improvement in teaching.

Participants will learn to plan, deliver, and refine their teaching using a structured Entrustable Professional Activity (EPA)-style cycle consisting of three phases: Pre-Teaching (planning with intentionality), Intra-Teaching (real-time adaptation), and Post-Teaching (reflection and refinement). The session integrates adult learning theory, the Kolb experiential learning model, fundamentals of microexpressions and body language, and evidence-based teaching evaluation tools to enhance both awareness and impact.

Phase 1: Pre-Teaching – Planning with Intentionality
Participants will begin by reframing “good teaching” as a deliberate process rather than an intuitive one. Using quick pre-planning frameworks and the System for Evaluation of Teaching Qualities (SETQ), participants will identify clear, measurable objectives for a real clinical encounter. They will then adapt these objectives using multiple strategies (e.g., storytelling, frameworks, problem-solving, or hands-on teaching) to reach diverse learners across settings.

Phase 2: Intra-Teaching – Adaptive Strategies and Cue Recognition
The second phase focuses on real-time adaptability. Participants will learn to detect and interpret non-verbal teaching cues, such as facial microexpressions, posture, tone, and gesture, as indicators of learner engagement, confusion, or stress. Using a practical 3-step “Cue Check” framework (Observe, Validate, Adapt), participants will practice switching teaching strategies in response to learner cues. Through small-group simulations, participants will watch standardized videos with various cues and rotate roles as educators to practice adaptive teaching in real clinical scenarios. Using validated tools such as the FACE (Feedback Assessment for Clinical Education) and Mini-CEX, observers will provide immediate, structured feedback on each educator’s communication, adaptability, and teaching effectiveness.

Phase 3: Post-Teaching – Feedback, Reflection, and Refinement
The final phase emphasizes structured reflection and growth. Participants will apply guided reflection tools such as the “Ask-Tell-Ask” model and the AAMC milestone-based teaching evaluation to assess their effectiveness, close the feedback loop with learners, and identify opportunities for refinement. Through peer coaching and structured worksheets, educators will rewrite and improve their initial teaching plans to better integrate adaptability, feedback, and location-specific strategies.

Take-Home Tools and Skills:
By the end of the session, participants will leave with a comprehensive resource packet and actionable tools to implement immediately at their home institutions, including:

• Quick Pre-Planning Frameworks (Learning Objective Formula + Three-Box Pre-Plan)
• SETQ and FACE Evaluation Tools
• Cue Recognition & Adaptation Worksheet
• Kolb Learning Strategy Grid (applied to OR, ward, clinic, and sim contexts)
• Reflection & Refinement Template for Teaching Growth Portfolios

Learning Outcomes:

By integrating intentional planning, adaptive delivery, and structured reflection, this workshop equips clinical educators to confidently answer the central question: “Am I an effective educator?” and to back that answer with evidence and self-awareness.

Non-technical skills (NTS) such as communication, teamwork, leadership, decision-making, and situation awareness are critical for safe and effective surgical care. Despite their recognized importance, structured training and objective assessment of these skills are still not routinely implemented across surgical education programs. The Association for Surgical Education (ASE) continues to lead the effort to integrate evidence-based approaches into competency-based training. This workshop builds on that vision by demonstrating how simulation, video-based assessment, and emerging technologies can be used to teach, measure, and improve non-technical skills in surgery.

Led by Dr. Sankaranarayanan, Dr. Nepomnayshy, Dr. Stefanidis and Dr. Scott, the session will combine expertise in simulation-based mastery learning, curriculum design, and data-driven performance assessment. Participants will begin by exploring validated frameworks such as NOTSS (Non-Technical Skills for Surgeons), ANTS, and NOTECHS, understanding how these models provide a structured way to observe and evaluate communication, leadership, and decision-making behaviors. Faculty will review how these frameworks are currently applied in operative and simulated environments and discuss practical challenges such as rater consistency and time-efficient implementation.

A major focus of the session will be the application of Rapid Cycle Deliberate Practice (RCDP) in simulation-based NTS training. Faculty will demonstrate how RCDP’s structure of short, iterative practice intervals with immediate feedback accelerates learning and reinforces key behavioral responses. Participants will experience mini-scenarios that emphasize teamwork, closed-loop communication, and leadership during intraoperative crises, with debriefing strategies that focus on specific behavioral objectives rather than general impressions.

The workshop will also explore how technology-enhanced approaches, including the use of video recordings in both operating rooms and simulation centers, can be leveraged to objectively assess team performance. Faculty will discuss how artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced video analytics can help identify communication patterns, response timing, and coordination metrics, providing educators with data-driven insights that complement human observation. These technologies are transforming assessment by enabling continuous feedback, standardized evaluation, and scalability across different training environments.

Participants will then break into small groups to design an NTS training or assessment plan for their own institution. They will define behavioral objectives, choose appropriate simulation modalities (live, virtual, or hybrid), incorporate RCDP principles, and identify opportunities to integrate video-based review or AI-assisted analytics into their programs. Faculty will share templates, validated rubrics, and implementation strategies to ensure participants can adapt these ideas to their local settings.

By the end of the workshop, participants will take home a set of practical tools, including:

(1) Validated frameworks and scoring rubrics for NTS assessment

(2) Simulation and debriefing templates incorporating RCDP

(3) Guidance for integrating video-based and AI-assisted performance analysis

(4) Implementation checklists and milestone alignment examples

Participants will leave prepared to implement data-informed, scalable methods to train and evaluate the non-technical skills that drive surgical performance and patient safety.

Artificial Intelligence (AI), though relatively new, is rapidly transforming multiple industries. Within surgical education, however, its adoption remains limited across the continuum– from medical students to faculty educators. Generative AI, powered by Large Language Models (LLMs), enables users to synthesize original content from existing data, offering immense potential for innovation in teaching, simulation, and assessment. Despite broad accessibility, integration of these tools into surgical education remains constrained by limited technical expertise, lack of faculty training, and the absence of institutional frameworks for ethical and pedagogically sound implementation.

The collaboration between the Association for Surgical Education (ASE) Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Sub-Workgroup and the Center for Surgery and Public Health (CSPH) at Mass General Brigham proposes an interactive, hands-on workshop designed to equip participants with a foundational technical understanding of how to use and customize a type of LLM known as a Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT). Using the widely recognized ChatGPT platform, participants will learn to design, test, and evaluate educational “bots” that align with specific surgical learning objectives.

The session will begin with a brief, video-recorded demonstration showcasing an example of a facilitator or trainee interacting with a standardized patient chatbot, similar to what participants will experience during the workshop. This introduction will help attendees—especially those unfamiliar with AI-based simulations—better visualize the potential of generative models in medical and surgical education. Following this, participants will receive a live tutorial on generative AI principles, the ChatGPT interface, and practical applications in education. Participants will then work in small groups to define a learning objective, design an evaluative component, and build a “synthetic patient” or “synthetic educator” aligned with that goal. Through structured templates, participants will translate their objectives into a functioning GPT model. To deepen engagement, groups will have the opportunity to briefly test or demonstrate interactions with their models, highlighting creative and pedagogical potential. The session will conclude with a reflective discussion on lessons learned, implementation barriers, and strategies for responsible adoption in institutional settings.

This workshop is grounded in Experiential Learning Framework and Constructivist Learning Theory, emphasizing active engagement, reflection, and iterative application. Through guided discovery, peer collaboration, and hands-on design, participants will integrate new knowledge into practice– aligning with adult learning principles of relevance, self-direction, and immediate applicability to surgical education.

All participants must have an active ChatGPT account and bring a laptop/tablet. Participants may use either a free or paid ChatGPT account– while the paid version is preferred for building GPTs, it is not required for participation. The workshop emphasizes accessibility, demonstrating how free and paid versions can be leveraged as educational tools regardless of institutional resources, whether participants come from large simulation centers or resource-limited settings. Facilitators will provide handouts, templates, and optional digital resources to support continued development beyond the workshop, which can be kept for building customized GPTs at participants’ own institutions. Please note that this session will not focus on basic ChatGPT use; rather, it will guide participants in building a customized GPT tailored to their specific surgical education needs.

The widespread implementation of Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) generates rich data at individual institutions. However, many programs struggle to extract meaningful insights from these data beyond simple descriptive statistics. Without guidance on their practical utilization, programs may struggle to assess residents based on collected EPAs because their ratings are ordinal (e.g, the distance between “limited participation” and “direct supervision” may differ from the distance between subsequent categories), rater standards can be inconsistent, and EPAs vary in difficulty. These complexities can limit the use of EPA and are often missed by descriptive statistics.

Many-facet Rasch modeling (MFRM) offers a solution. It transforms ordinal EPA ratings into interval-scale measures, accounting for item difficulty, rater severity, and rating scale function. More importantly, it generates practical tools you can use immediately: variable maps that function as assessment dashboards, insights for Clinical Competency Committee (CCC) discussions, and evidence to guide rater training.

Audience: This 90-minute hands-on workshop is designed for program directors, associate program directors, residents, and clinician educators who collect EPA data and want actionable insights. No prior experience with statistics or programming is required.

Module 1: Understanding the Rasch Model (Without the Statistical Anxiety)

We will introduce MFRM by showing what it does. Using a concrete example with simulated EPA data, we will demonstrate how the model reveals insights that are invisible with traditional analysis: which residents are truly struggling versus which appear to struggle because they have been rated by harsh attendings, which EPA items are unexpectedly difficult, and whether your rating scale categories are functioning as intended.

Interactive exercise: following the conceptual overview, participants will engage in a short, interactive quiz using a polling platform. The multiple-choice questions are designed to challenge common assumptions about EPA data and reinforce the fundamental principles of Rasch measurement.

Module 2: Your New Assessment Dashboard: The Variable Map

Using simulated data, we will demonstrate how variable maps become powerful visual tools for program leadership. Participants will learn to interpret these maps for multiple practical applications: (1) identifying residents who may need additional support or remediation; (2) presenting assessment data to a CCC with visual evidence of resident progress; (3) determining which EPA items might be redundant or poorly calibrated; and (4) identifying attendings who may benefit from rater training.

Interactive exercise: Participants will analyze variable maps from three different programs and role-play a CCC discussion, using the map to justify decisions and identify assessment system improvements.

Module 3: Hands-On Analysis with Your Data

We will provide annotated R code that participants can adapt to their own institutional EPA data. The code generates everything you need: variable maps formatted as dashboards, diagnostic reports, and CCC-ready visualizations. Facilitators will walk through each section, explaining how to modify it for a specific context.

Interactive exercise: Participants will run the code on the provided simulated data, then identify specific ways they would use the outputs at their institution. Facilitators will provide individualized guidance on implementation strategies.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has undergone a tremendous evolution both in its learning capacity and integration within our society. As generative language model AI has become more powerful, surgeons and educators have been excited by its promise but wary of its risks. Although notorious uses of AI have captured media attention (such as writing papers or making instant presentations), there is a huge potential for generative AI to address some of the biggest challenges in surgical education. This workshop is designed to review existing generative AI tools, provide real-world examples of using these tools to address well-known challenges in surgical education, and generate discussion about innovative uses of AI in resident education.

Generative AI tools are improving quickly and proliferating. Popular non-specialized software like ChatGPT and more scientifically focused options like Open Evidence are already in common use. In fact, multiple studies have assessed ChatGPT’s aptitude with anatomy, theoretical knowledge, and surgical technique. Other iterations of artificial intelligence in surgical education include AI-based video review, in which the AI software has demonstrated parity with human review of laparoscopic skills. Additionally, one of the strengths of generative AI is the ability to provide individualized learning which is self-paced, adapts to the level of the learner, and can identify knowledge gaps. Leveraging these aspects of generative AI in resident education can help residents become more intentional in their learning and skill acquisition.

Many challenges in surgical education relate to building clinical and technical competence in a clinically busy environment with work hour constraints. Generative AI can provide on-demand, just-in-time instruction at an appropriate level of depth and at clinically relevant moments. Generative AI can also help residents critically assess their own knowledge gaps. These are essential parts of intentional learning that can complement the more traditional didactic lectures and bedside teaching. Adaptive, individualized, question-based instruction is also a great tool for ABSITE remediation.

Additionally, since residents have more modalities to learn (open, laparoscopic, robotic) in more constrained duty hours, maximizing learning during each operative case is critical.  Most residency programs emphasize simulation and practice outside of the operating room.  Generative AI can provide guided instruction to increase the effectiveness of simulation. In fact, AI-guided simulation training has led to improved skill performance when compared to a remote instructor in at least one study. Generative AI language models can also review critical steps of an operation and intraoperative scenarios in an interactive way to prepare for cases.

Although generative AI has well-documented limitations, including hallucinations and bias, it has the potential to be a powerful tool in surgical education.  This workshop should prepare surgical educators, including program directors, teaching faculty, and clerkship directors, to understand ways to incorporate generative AI tools into surgical education to address some perennial challenges (such as ABSITE remediation and intraoperative learning) while also promoting a culture of intentional learning. Thoughtful use of new AI tools may lead to the next wave of innovations in surgical education.

Demand for structured leadership training for residents is undeniable, as evidenced by the development and recent expansion of national curricula like the ACS Residents as Teachers curriculum. However, standardized curricula often overlooks institutional context and resource variability and do not consistently deliver the longitudinal experience trainees need to develop durable leadership skills. This interactive workshop is designed to equip participants with basic tools useful for supplementing current leadership programming, creating a new training opportunity, or aiding in development of a customized leadership curriculum.

 This session is ideal for Program Directors, Associate Program Directors, clinician educators, chief residents, and any faculty, fellows, or residents interested in developing educational initiatives.

The session will focus on practical applications. We will begin with a brief introduction to common leadership curriculum models identified through our working group’s experience. These will span both large / resource-rich academic institutions to small / under-resourced small or community institutions, with input across GME educators, faculty, and residents for a holistic perspective.

This will be followed by a small-group interactive discussion in which participants identify institutional goals, constraints, and barriers to implementation. Using live polling and open discussion, attendees will categorize challenges such as limited faculty bandwidth, competing curricular demands, or lack of funding or protected time—setting the stage for targeted exploration during small-group rotations.

Participants will then rotate through expert-facilitated small-group-style stations, each designed to highlight a specific leadership education context or strategy. Through structured reflection and facilitated discussion, attendees will identify realistic implementation pathways tailored to their institutional resources and capacity. The goal is for workshop participants to analyze their own institutional environments and develop feasible, resource-aligned strategies for adapting or implementing leadership curricula. 

The four expert-led stations include: 

• Station 1: Designing Curricula in Large / Resource-Rich Academic Institutions (GME / Faculty Perspective)
• Station 2: High-Impact, Low-Resource Strategies for Community Hospitals or Small / Under-Resourced Programs (Faculty Perspective)
• Station 3: The Resident-as-Teacher: Building a Resident-Led Program (Resident Perspective)
• Station 4: Measuring Success: Developing Evaluation and Assessment Tools / Metrics

These will run concurrently in two 20-minute blocks so that participants can work through the two stations most relevant to their interests. 

The workshop will culminate in a large-group debrief and synthesis, where facilitators and participants will co-create a “recipe for success” that integrates lessons, examples, and pathways from all stations. This closing segment will help attendees translate ideas into practical, actionable plans suited to their home institutions.

Participants will leave with a customizable framework, short- and long-term implementation strategies, and a toolkit of adaptable resources for curriculum design and evaluation.

This interactive workshop will provide participants with a practical roadmap for designing and implementing a structured curriculum to improve collaboration between Advanced Practice Providers (APPs) and surgical residents. Drawing from the development of the WashU APPRECIATE platform, the session will focus on five core modules: role definition, APPs as educators, standardized handoff, conflict resolution, and feedback.

Participants will explore how targeted educational interventions can strengthen interprofessional communication, streamline workflows, and enhance patient care. Facilitators will present examples of orientation guides, handoff tools, teaching frameworks, and simulation scenarios used in real-world settings. Attendees will receive ready-to-use templates, evaluation tools, and implementation strategies that can be customized to fit their own institutional needs.

This session is designed for surgical educators, program directors, APP leaders, and curriculum developers interested in fostering stronger APP-resident partnerships. The focus will be on scalable, sustainable tools that support both the launch and long-term sustainability of interprofessional training initiatives.

Have you ever felt out of your depth while taking care of a patient with a marginalized identity?

Have you ever felt that you could make the experience of a marginalized patient better, but didn’t want to speak up to your attending?

Upteaching describes an educational model in which a person who is typically a learner teaches a new concept to a person who is typically an educator. Often seen in informal settings, upteaching carries with it an understanding that learning may happen at any time and from a variety of sources. Upteaching can be applied in a variety of settings when a psychologically safe environment is present. This model can allow for those typically in the learner role to consolidate their knowledge and improve their confidence while providing new information to the person typically in the educator role.

Although the rigid hierarchy of surgery mandates a top-down educational structure in which a medical student or resident learns from an attending, students and trainees have valuable insights to offer that can have a positive impact on patient care. In particular, in an ever-changing landscape of social justice and equity, the up-to-date knowledge that students and trainees have may help attendings to understand these concepts and apply them to the care of marginalized patients. In the surgical education environment, upteaching is a valuable tactic to exchange ideas and promote dialogue within the healthcare team. Upteaching may also have downstream effects of promoting a culture of safety by creating a respectful and inquisitive learning environment.

This workshop is aimed at attendings, residents, and medical students. It will cover the importance of upteaching, why it matters for promoting health equity, and how to apply upteaching principles—for both learners and educators—in the clinical environment. Workshop participants will be given the opportunity to reflect on their own experiences and develop an action plan for applying upteaching principles to their own practice.

Research plays a pivotal role in building a successful career in academic surgery, regardless of one’s stage in the process. However, for medical students and other early-stage trainees, added difficulty often comes from being new to the field and lacking prior experience. Once a mentor has been identified, and there is familiarity with the relevant terminology, newly developed methodological skills, and, ideally, some compelling results, the next step is to present the findings. This is often the stage when the familiar, and sometimes daunting, phrase is introduced: “Write up a draft, and we’ll go from there.” Now what?

This interactive workshop is intended for medical students/trainees new to developing their academic writing skills. Participants will be divided into five small groups, each focused on one of the workshop’s core objectives. Participants will be assigned to each group and paired with 1–2 facilitators selected from the GSE-JASE reviewer pool and members of the editorial board. The workshop will consist of five 15-minute rotating sessions, bookended by a 5-minute introduction and a 5-minute closing. Participants will have the opportunity to register in advance and indicate their top three preferred stations to ensure a tailored and engaging experience.

• “Peer Review, Please”

This roundtable will examine the critical role of peer review in medical education scholarship. Discussion topics will include how to become a peer reviewer, the logistics and timelines involved in the peer review process, and best practices for preparing a manuscript for successful review. Real-world examples will be shared to illustrate what reviewers look for and how they approach evaluating submissions.

• “Choose Your Own (Study) Adventure”

This session will guide participants through the process of selecting appropriate study designs for medical education research. Depending on the group’s experience level, discussion may begin with foundational concepts such as formulating a research question. Facilitators will share personal insight, including both successes and challenges, related to methodological decisions in medical education project formation. 

• “Reporting Results the Right Way”

This table will focus on effective strategies for reporting findings in medical education research. Participants will explore reporting guidelines such as CONSORT, with facilitators offering practical advice based on their own experiences. Emphasis will be placed on clarity, transparency, and the inclusion of essential data elements that enhance the impact and credibility of research findings.

• “Intro to the Introduction”

Crafting a compelling introduction can be one of the most challenging aspects of academic writing. This table will delve into the art of crafting an engaging and comprehensive introduction. Participants will explore strategies for writing effective introductions, including how to provide relevant background, establish clinical or educational significance, and identify knowledge gaps that justify the research question.

• “Discussion: Making Sense of Your Results”

This table will help participants understand how to construct a meaningful and coherent discussion section. Key elements will include interpreting findings within the broader context of medical education, acknowledging limitations, and proposing future directions. Examples of strong discussion sections will be analyzed, and common pitfalls will be highlighted to help attendees avoid them in their own writing.

LCME Standard 3.5 mandates that medical schools monitor the learning environment (LE) across all clerkships, yet the processes for doing so vary widely. Many surgery clerkship directors report significant challenges in evaluating the effectiveness of their LE review processes and aligning them with stakeholder priorities. While many have proposed intervention strategies to deal with mistreatment, they lack dynamic specificity at the institutional level and often neglect perspectives of a variety of stakeholders. This workshop addresses that gap by creating a space for structured dialogue around what barriers or facilitators exist in the learning environment review processes.

Participants will enumerate processes, resources, challenges, and cultural issues that affect the undergraduate surgical learning environment. 

Through real-time data collection, analysis, interactive group work, and guided discussion, attendees will engage in informational exchange, building on their strengths as experts in their own institutions. The goal is to use these insights to build community capacity, inform action steps, and guide future solutions to deal with this difficult challenge. 

Grounded in Thomas et al.’s Six-Step Approach to Curriculum Development (Thomas PA, Kern DE, Hughes MT, Tackett SA, Chen BY (2022). Curriculum Development for Medical Education: A Six-Step Approach. Johns Hopkins University Press), this session focuses specifically on the “targeted needs assessment” step. Participants will be able to identify discrepancies between current and ideal LE review practices. 

Alignment with ASE criteria: 

• Merit & Originality: Employs an evidence-based curricular framework (Thomas et al., 2022) to clerkship-level LE reviews, focusing specifically on the targeted needs assessment step to equip Clerkship Directors, Coordinators, faculty, trainees, and students to review the learning environment.
• Innovation: Translates accreditation compliance (LCME 3.5) into actionable peer-designed assessment tools through a structured gap analysis.
• Engagement: Emphasizes group brainstorming, real-time data collection and visualization, and collaborative gap mapping.
• Relevance: Directly supports ASE members charged with LE oversight, addressing burnout, accountability, and continuous quality improvement in surgical education.