The State of Vascular Surgery Interest Groups in North America

Background: Vascular surgery interest groups (VSIGs) raise awareness and attract medical students to the specialty. There has been a plateauing of applicants interested in integrated programs. The goal of this survey was to assess the activities of VSIGs and identify factors associated with matriculation into vascular surgery residency.

Methods: A survey was administered to members of the association of program directors in vascular surgery. It inquired about the presence of a VSIG at the corresponding medical schools. The program directors at institutions lacking VSIGs were asked about possible hurdles in establishing one. The rest of the survey focused on the different activities of the VSIG. The VSIGs were divided into low enrollment if less than 10% of the students in that group pursue vascular surgery training and high enrollment if greater than 10% of the students pursue vascular surgery. Chi-squared test was used for comparison.

Results: There were 65/123 programs that responded (53% response rate). The responses came most commonly from programs in the Northeast (36.9%). Only 37% (n = 24) had a VSIG at their institutions. Lack of time (65.2%) and lack of a student champion (60.9%) were the most common hurdles encountered by the program directors who considered establishing a VSIG. Comparing the 2 groups of VSIGs, there was no difference in terms of the training paradigm, experience of program director, or geographical location. The VSIGs had comparable duration of activity, number of students, and meeting frequency. There was no difference in clinical exposure outside the curriculum between the 2 groups with observation on the wards and in clinic being most common. Endovascular simulation was significantly (P = 0.01) more common in low enrollment (83.3%) compared with high enrollment (33.3%) VSIG. There was a trend in the high enrollment group for more vascular anastomosis training (75% vs. 66.7%) that did not reach statistical significance (P = 0.65). There was no difference between the 2 groups in career development opportunities and education activities. Most VSIGs (75%) operated with a budget of less than $1,000 based on divisional or departmental funding (low enrollment = 66.7% versus high enrollment = 41.7%, P = 0.22).

Conclusions: Only one-third of the vascular surgery training programs have an associated VSIG. Vascular surgery training programs should promote VSIG formation with equal emphasis on endovascular and open surgery, thus providing medical students an early exposure to the specialty.