Determining a core curriculum in surgical infections for fellowship training in acute care surgery using the Delphi technique

Background: Recent data highlight the educational, financial, and healthcare benefits of acute care surgery (ACS). These data serve as the impetus to create ACS fellowships, which now are accredited by the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma. However, the core components of a curriculum fundamental for ACS training and that yield competence and proficiency have yet to be determined. Methods: Experts in ACS from the United States (n=86) were asked to propose topics in surgical infectious diseases of potential importance in developing a core curriculum for ACS fellowship training. They were then required to rank these topics in order of importance to identify those considered most fundamental. Results: Thirty-one filters ranking in the highest tertile are proposed as topics of surgical infectious diseases that are fundamental to any curriculum of ACS fellowship training. The majority pertains to aspects of thoracic infections (n=8), although topics of soft tissue infections (n=5) comprised four of the top 10 (40%) filters. Abdominal infections (n=6), the biology of sepsis (n=6), and risk, prevention, and prophylaxis (n=6) completed the list. Conclusion: This study identifies the most important topics of surgical infectious disease that merit consideration for incorporation into a core curriculum of ACS training. Hopefully, this information will assist in the development of ACS fellowships that optimize the training of future ACS surgeons.