As residents within the healthcare profession, our first duty is to care for our patients. While working upwards of 80 hours per week pursuing that mission, it is hard to think of ourselves as anything beyond our job title. But we are also citizens. And while patient care remains a worthy North Star, decisions made by faraway policymakers can impact our patients as much as the assessments and plans we ourselves craft.

"Do you have an IRB?" is often the first question anyone asks when a new research idea is proposed. It shouldn't be the last. Despite the personal frustrations of surgeons who deal with them, institutional review boards (IRBs) maintain a revered status within our profession. For instance, the perceived necessity of IRB review is so ubiquitous that most readers will know to ask the above question even if they do not know why.

This is a preprint of a manuscript currently under peer review. Abstract Importance: Gossip, defined by social scientists as “evaluative talk about an absent third party,” is anecdotally pervasive, yet poorly understood in surgical residency programs. Objective: This study sought to deconstruct the role of gossip in surgical residency and evaluate its impact through the lens of surgical residents.

This is a preprint that has not yet been peer reviewed. Think about the last time you submitted a paper. After meticulous editing, you uploaded your manuscript and hit the "submit" button. Then, you waited. And waited. The reviewers requested revisions, which you obliged. More waiting. Finally, the paper was accepted and sent for proofing. You were one of the lucky ones.

This is a preprint of a manuscript currently under peer review. The American Board of Surgery In-Training Examination (ABSITE ^® ) is a multiple-choice exam administered yearly to surgical residents. The ABS provides the following information on its website: "The ABSITE is furnished to program directors as a formative evaluation instrument to assess residents’ progress.

We are amidst a revolution in artificial intelligence (AI). In this paper, we aim to share our early experience with creating custom AI-powered chatbots in surgical education. While our versions are prototypes, we hypothesize that similar chatbots will one day play a significant role in the field. In brief, AI is the ability of a computer to perform human-like tasks.

Recently, Drs. Robert Wachter and Erik Brynjolfsson published a viewpoint in the Journal of the American Medical Association JAMA on Generative AI in healthcare. We agree with their views and wished to add the following points in a response letter. While our letter was not accepted, we have pre-printed it here. Please find the original paper and our response below.

Recently, Asim A, MD had a thoughtful post on X about a question he thinks that applicants should ask interviewers in the 2024 Match. This is a very insightful question because of how much the answer reveals about the program. First, the answer will tell you about the practical support systems that exist.

Abstract Background Reducing costs and carbon footprint are important, parallel priorities for the U.S. healthcare system. Within surgery, reducing the number of instruments that are sterilized and disposable supplies that are used for each operation can help achieve both goals.

Students and residents aspiring for a career in academic surgery are looking for training programs that will help jumpstart their careers by exposing them to mentorship and opportunities to conduct research. While the gold standard of academic productivity (for the time being) remains peer-reviewed publications, conference posters and presentations are an important secondary metric.