Content and Accessibility of Surgical Critical Care Fellowship Websites in the United States

Abstract

Background Resident physicians are using the Internet to gather information about graduate medical education programs. The content of fellowship websites has been demonstrated to influence applicants’ decisions. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the content of the surgical critical care fellowship (SCCF) program websites. Methods A list of Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma (EAST) and American Association for the Surgery of Trauma (AAST) SCCF programs was obtained, and compared to the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) list of accredited programs. The accessibility of each website was assessed through Google®. Content areas were assessed for each SCCF website. Results At the time of this study, 76 SCCF were listed on the EAST website and an additional 14 were supplied by the AAST database. 125 programs were listed in the ACGME database. Of the 76 SCCF listed by EAST, 44 (58%), 32 (42%), and 7 (9%) of SCCF programs had an EAST listing that was 3, 5, or 10 years or more out of date, respectively. Of the 90 SCCF programs listed on EAST or AAST sites, 36 programs (40%) had an inaccurate PD named on their listing. One hundred and nineteen of the 125 (95%) SCCF programs had websites accessible through Google®. Only 25 (20%) programs had a website containing a program description, faculty list, curriculum, and current/past fellows list. Conclusions Many SCCF websites lacked information regarding program specifics. Valuable information for potential applicants was inadequate across SCCF websites.