GAP Educational Programs
Visiting Professorship in Gynecologic Oncology -
El Salvador January 2012
From Jan. 25-27, 2012, Kathleen Schmeler, M.D., of MD Anderson's Department of Gynecologic Oncology and Reproductive Medicine and Mildred Chernofsky, M.D., of Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, D.C., visited Hospital de Maternidad in San Salvador, El Salvador. The two physicians spent three days providing didactic lectures, rounding with patients, assisting with surgery and meeting with local healthcare leadership as part of the Visiting Professorship in Gynecologic Oncology.
Approximately 50 residents participated, travelling from all five residency programs in the country. This included two Gynecologic Oncology fellows from the Social Security Hospital. All Gynecologic Oncology faculty attended the didactic lectures as well as the patient rounds and the hospital administration was actively involved in the visit. Although Schmeler and Chernofsky performed the majority of the surgeries, the procedures were videotaped and streamed live to the residents and faculty in a nearby auditorium. After surgery, Schmeler and Chernofsky returned to the auditorium to review the surgeries and answered questions pertaining to the procedures.
At the close of Schmeler and Chernofsky's three day visit, a course graduation ceremony was attended by all faculty and administration. The visiting physicians toured the El Salvadoran Social Security Hospital and had dinner with leading participants from the El Salvadoran Obstetrics and Gynecology Society. Schmeler and Chernofsky found there was a high level of interest in improving and expanding the resident training program and in engaging in additional ways to prevent and screen for gynecologic cancers.
The intent of the resident training program is to assist in improving scores on the Council on Resident Education in Obstetrics and Gynecology (CREOG) exam administered by the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). To that end, Chernofsky and Schmeler added a new CREOG question review lecture to the presentations. Future goals of the program include comparing CREOG scores before and after the Visiting Professorship Program and assisting in writing and reviewing questions for the Central American CREOG exam.
The program plans to return to Guatemala in August, Honduras in the fall or winter and El Salvador in the fall or winter. Participating physicians in the program will embark on first-time visits to Costa Rica in the summer or fall, Nicaragua in the fall and Panama in 2013. In addition to gynecologic cancers, the program hopes to expand to include training in the management of breast cancer.