{
  "id": "https://doi.org/10.59350/kj95y-gp867",
  "type": "BlogPost",
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    "identifier": "2993-1150",
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    "type": "Blog",
    "title": "I.D.E.A.S.",
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  "content": "<figure class=\"kg-card kg-image-card kg-width-wide kg-card-hascaption\">\n<img\nsrc=\"https://www.ideasurg.pub/content/images/2023/04/Residency-Scorecard-Light-Mode--7-.png\"\nclass=\"kg-image\" loading=\"lazy\"\nsrcset=\"https://www.ideasurg.pub/content/images/size/w600/2023/04/Residency-Scorecard-Light-Mode--7-.png 600w, https://www.ideasurg.pub/content/images/size/w1000/2023/04/Residency-Scorecard-Light-Mode--7-.png 1000w, https://www.ideasurg.pub/content/images/size/w1600/2023/04/Residency-Scorecard-Light-Mode--7-.png 1600w, https://www.ideasurg.pub/content/images/size/w2400/2023/04/Residency-Scorecard-Light-Mode--7-.png 2400w\"\nsizes=\"(min-width: 1200px) 1200px\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1127\" />\n<figcaption>My prototype for a Residency Visual Abstract</figcaption>\n</figure>\n\n::: {.kg-card .kg-callout-card .kg-callout-card-grey}\n::: {.kg-callout-text}\nThis tool represents my own ideas and is not currently in use or\nendorsed by any institution.\n:::\n:::\n\nMedical students applying to residency often have to grapple with an\nincredible amount of information when evaluating prospective training\nprograms. The increased number of applications and interviews inherent\nto the Zoom era further exacerbates this issue. At the same time,\nprograms need to find ways to communicate a great deal of information to\napplicants. Due to the proliferation of social media, this communication\nis both more extensive and more longitudinal than a one hour\npresentation on interview day.\n\nThe traditional interview day presentation is a slide presentation that\nprovides several factual details about a program. While each program is\nslightly different, most of these presentations cover common ground -\nincluding where residents rotate, what services they do, where alumni\nmatch into fellowship, examination pass rates, and information on\nprofessional development and research activities. These presentations\ncan often be long (I once helped edit a slide deck that had 60 slides in\nit!) and difficult to recall. Furthermore, updating these slides from\nyear to year is a time consuming challenge. Finally, most of these\npresentations are done in a traditional bullet point format with few\nslides reserved for photos. Few are designed in a way that optimizes\nuser experience.\n\nIn my opinion, the most important quality of the program is how well a\nprospective applicant fits in with the resident culture. Though it is\nimpossible to put into numbers, it has an outsized impact on a\nresident\\'s experience and wellness. Furthermore, it is even harder to\nintuit in the absence of an in-person interview experience.\nNevertheless, there are important quantitative metrics that applicants\nconsider and programs want to showcase. However, there is not yet a\nstandardized, accessible, and visually appealing format to do so. Given\nthe challenges in communicating these details as well as the growing\npower of social media , I wanted to design a new way that programs can\neffectively and efficiently display and disseminate this information so\nthat applicants can be more informed and programs can better utilize\ntheir interview days to convey the critical intangibles.\n\nIn the distinct but not quite distant field of surgical research, the\nvisual abstract has already proven to be an excellent means of\ndistilling a research study filled with details into an easy-to-digest\nand visually pleasing format. Developed by Dr. Andrew Ibrahim and\ncolleagues, the visual abstract has already been adopted by 50 journals,\nand a study by the creators\n[demonstrated](https://journals.lww.com/annalsofsurgery/Citation/2017/12000/Visual_Abstracts_to_Disseminate_Research_on_Social.36.aspx?ref=ideasurg.pub)\nthat the presence of a visual abstract can more than double article\nvisits and increase impressions more than seven-fold. An excellent\nprimer discussing how to develop a visual abstract and highlighting its\nuse in academic journals is available\n[here](https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5854aaa044024321a353bb0d/t/5a527aa89140b76bbfb2028a/1515354827682/VisualAbstract_Primer_v4_1.pdf?ref=ideasurg.pub).\n\nA variant of the visual abstract has also been used by residency\nprograms on social media in the past. An example from the Duke Surgery\nResidency program is shown here:\n\n<figure class=\"kg-card kg-embed-card\">\n<blockquote>\n<p>We’re so excited to meet <a\nhref=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/GenSurgMatch2023?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&amp;ref=ideasurg.pub\">#GenSurgMatch2023</a>\napplicants over the next few months! Check out our latest <a\nhref=\"https://twitter.com/DukeSurgRes?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&amp;ref=ideasurg.pub\">@DukeSurgRes</a>\n<a\nhref=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/VisualAbstract?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&amp;ref=ideasurg.pub\">#VisualAbstract</a>\n<a\nhref=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/ByTheNumbers?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&amp;ref=ideasurg.pub\">#ByTheNumbers</a>.\nWe hope you can visualize your <a\nhref=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/SutureFuture?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&amp;ref=ideasurg.pub\">#SutureFuture</a>\nat <a\nhref=\"https://twitter.com/DukeSurgery?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&amp;ref=ideasurg.pub\">@DukeSurgery</a>.\n<a\nhref=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/SabistonSquad?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&amp;ref=ideasurg.pub\">#SabistonSquad</a>\n<a\nhref=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/SurgTwitter?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&amp;ref=ideasurg.pub\">#SurgTwitter</a>\n<a\nhref=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/MedTwitter?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&amp;ref=ideasurg.pub\">#MedTwitter</a>\n<a\nhref=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/SurgEd?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&amp;ref=ideasurg.pub\">#SurgEd</a>\n<a\nhref=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/ILookLikeASurgeon?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&amp;ref=ideasurg.pub\">#ILookLikeASurgeon</a>\n<a\nhref=\"https://t.co/6ZqnfFrWE5?ref=ideasurg.pub\">pic.twitter.com/6ZqnfFrWE5</a></p>\n<p>— Duke General Surgery Residency (@DukeSurgRes) <a\nhref=\"https://twitter.com/DukeSurgRes/status/1587460003941810179?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&amp;ref=ideasurg.pub\">November\n1, 2022</a></p>\n</blockquote>\n</figure>\n\nInspired by this format, I tried to design a version tailored towards\nprospective surgery trainees. I wanted to see if I could boil down the\ncomplexity of a program into the fewest pieces of data possible and\npresent them in a user-friendly interface.\n\n### The Visual Abstract\n\nThe abstract contains six different categories: demographics, operative\nvolume, education, research, fellowships, and other. The goal is to\ncapture relevant information regarding the tripartite mission of\nacademic surgery as well as understand a program\\'s strengths in\ndiversity and inclusion and career preparation. For each category,\ndiscrete data points were chosen which can easily allow applicants to\ncontextualize a program\\'s strengths and weaknesses. The other category\ncontains a checklist of features that applicants seem to care about\n(based on observations and conversations though certainly not proven\nscientifically). Finally, there is a space for QR codes to link to the\nprogram website as well as a copy of the contract that matched\napplicants will need to sign (as\n[required](https://www.nrmp.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/2023-MPA-Main-Match-Program-FINAL-3.pdf?ref=ideasurg.pub)\nby the National Resident Matching Program).\n\nOf course, the tool comes with a dark mode!\n\n<figure class=\"kg-card kg-image-card kg-width-wide\">\n<img\nsrc=\"https://www.ideasurg.pub/content/images/2023/04/Thumbnail--2-.png\"\nclass=\"kg-image\" loading=\"lazy\"\nsrcset=\"https://www.ideasurg.pub/content/images/size/w600/2023/04/Thumbnail--2-.png 600w, https://www.ideasurg.pub/content/images/size/w1000/2023/04/Thumbnail--2-.png 1000w, https://www.ideasurg.pub/content/images/size/w1600/2023/04/Thumbnail--2-.png 1600w, https://www.ideasurg.pub/content/images/2023/04/Thumbnail--2-.png 1924w\"\nsizes=\"(min-width: 1200px) 1200px\" width=\"1924\" height=\"1084\" />\n</figure>\n\n### What this is\n\nThis visual abstract can provide a semi-standardized format for programs\nto share important information with applicants allowing them to compare\nimportant metrics in a comprehensive, \"easy\" way. It is important to\nnote that each of these data points is meant to be an objective measure\nwithout any comment on its intrinsic value. For example, one program may\nhave a significantly higher case volume than peer institutions but less\nprotected education time. Another may have a robotic curriculum but not\nhave any recent chiefs who matched into Pediatric Surgery. None of these\nare independently good or bad, but applicants should have an easy way to\nunderstand the factors so that they can make the most informed decision.\nIf a significant number of programs adopt the visual abstract, it will\nnaturally create incentives for programs to share and improve on these\nmetrics with transparency. In this manner, healthy competition can\nactually generate an incentive to improve program offerings for current\nresidents as well (though this can have unintended consequences...see\nlimitations).\n\nSome may question the wisdom of putting these numbers out in the open -\nespecially if they are not where a program wants them to be. However,\nsome of the information is publicly\n[available](https://www.absurgery.org/xfer/3yr_summary.pdf?ref=ideasurg.pub).\nMany of these data points are already reported on during the interview\nprocess. Moreover, most applicants want to know this information and\nvalue transparency. Ultimately, no program is perfect, and how a program\nchooses to address perceived strengths and weaknesses reflects its core\nvalues.\n\n### What this is not and other limitations\n\nNo visual abstract, slide deck, or document will be able to capture the\nfull picture of a residency program - which at its core is a collection\nof human beings. It is worth repeating that the most important\nconsideration students should make when choosing a program is missing\nfrom this work. Furthermore, the exact data points used may not be\ncorrect. At one point, I considered putting a box for ABSITE pass rate,\nhowever I thought this was antithetical to the ABSITE\\'s stated aim of\nbeing a\n[formative](https://www.absurgery.org/default.jsp?certabsite=&ref=ideasurg.pub),\nnot a summative, assessment. Furthermore, there is no box specifying the\nnumber of LGBTQ residents in a program. While this is an essential\ncomponent of diversity, equity, and inclusion, it was omitted due to the\nfact that some of these residents may not be publicly out and this would\nlead to an inaccurate representation. Another missing box is the number\nof residents with children, given that family support is an increasingly\nrecognized feature that students are looking for in training programs.\n\nI would like for this to be even less cluttered - and user feedback can\ndrive further reduction of content such that the distilled final version\nis even more elegant. Currently, the vision for this project is that of\na grassroots project, where individual programs can choose to use,\nimprove, and modify this template to broadcast important information to\napplicants. However, I am wary of the general principle that once\nquantitative metrics are used by a central authority to rank, there is a\nnatural tendency to gamify those metrics whether or not the underlying\nfeature they seek to estimate is actually affected.\n\n### What to do with this template\n\nIn short, whatever you would like. The template was built in Figma,\nwhich has become the industry-standard in visual design. It is free to\nmake a basic Figma account, and the full suite of features is also\navailable for free with proof of affiliation with a university. Figma\noffers the ability to comment on a template as well as duplicate or\n\\\"remix\\\" the template for personal use. I would appreciate your\nfeedback on how to make this template better. Moreover, I encourage you\nto take it, modify it, improve it, and share your changes publicly.\nTogether, we can continue to iteratively design this initial prototype\nand develop a robust, user-friendly tool that provides values to\nstudents, residents, and programs alike.\n\n### Comment, remix, make it your own!\n\n[https://www.figma.com/community/file/1226056013352001653](https://www.figma.com/community/file/1226056013352001653?ref=ideasurg.pub)\n",
  "contributors": [
    {
      "type": "Person",
      "person": {
        "id": "https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0449-4469",
        "given_name": "Tejas S.",
        "family_name": "Sathe"
      },
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        "Author"
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  "date_published": "2023-04-08T19:32:34Z",
  "date_updated": "2023-04-08T19:32:34Z",
  "description": "My prototype for a Residency Visual AbstractThis tool represents my own ideas and is not currently in use or endorsed by any institution. Medical students applying to residency often have to grapple with an incredible amount of information when evaluating prospective training programs. The increased number of applications and interviews inherent to the Zoom era further exacerbates this issue.",
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      "url": "https://www.ideasurg.pub/content/images/2023/04/Residency-Scorecard-Light-Mode--7-.png"
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  "image": "https://www.ideasurg.pub/content/images/2023/04/Residency-Scorecard-Light-Mode--7-.png",
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    "name": "Front Matter"
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  "title": "The Residency Visual Abstract",
  "url": "https://www.ideasurg.pub/residency-visual-abstract",
  "version": "v1"
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