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The Southeastern Surgical Congress (SESC) was founded with a mission to provide opportunities for surgeons and surgeons in training to come together for educational, scientific, and social purposes to promote and advance the study and practice of surgery.1 Geographically, the SESC represents a consortium of 17 members, including 15 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.1 These members are highlighted in Figure 1A.
Some of the most important educational outcomes involve performance on the American Board of Surgery (ABS) Qualifying Examination (QE) and Certifying Examination (CE).2' 3 There are known geographic variations in residency program and examinee performance on ABS examinations.2, 3 A recent study showed that examinees from the Southwest Surgical Congress (SWSC) outperformed examinees from programs outside the SWSC.2 The geographical comparisons between the SESC and the SWSC are seen in Figure 1A.1' 2 Another study showed that examinees in the South, as defined by the United States Census Bureau region, were outperformed on the ABS CE by the other Census Bureau regions; the 17 SESC members in that study had a median pass rate rank of 32nd [interquartile range (IQR) (20th-39th)] out of 47.3 The four main Census Bureau Regions are shown in Figure 1B.3
With the educational mission and collaborative spirit of the SESC, and the importance of ABS examination performance at both the residency program and individual levels, the main purpose of this study is to evaluate regional performance of the SESC on these ABS examination outcome measures. With the findings observed in other studies, the hypothesis is that the SESC residency programs and examinees are outperformed on the ABS examinations.
This was a retrospective study from 2005 to 2015. The first-attempt program data were obtained from two consecutive 5-year reports available through the ABS, and with permission.4 Residency programs that had at least one examinee attempt both examinations in both periods were included. Residency program location was used to determine if the program was under the membership umbrella of the SESC consortium.1 Residency...