Development of a CD-ROM Internet hybrid: A new thoracic surgery curriculum

During the last decade thoracic surgical resident education has undergone considerable change [1-9]. These changes have occurred in three closely related areas: the content of the educational process (what we teach), the structure of the educational process (how we teach), and the duration of the educational process (when we teach) [10-16]. Although our formal thoracic surgical education spans a period of 2 or 3 years we continue to rely on a significant amount of information to have been mastered by the resident before initiating the formal thoracic surgery residency process. We also continue to anticipate ongoing maturation of technical and clinical skills as well as didactic knowledge after the completion of a residency during postgraduate practice. The rapid growth of fact-based information pertaining to our field has resulted in a dramatic expansion of the amount of material we must successfully transmit to our residents without any change in the amount of time available to do so [17, 18]. There is an increasing reliance on a solid background in fundamental surgical skills and knowledge that has been imparted to our residents before the first day of their thoracic surgery residency.