ORIGINAL REPORTS Four Years of Teaching Principles in Clinical Trials—A Continuous Evaluation of the Postgraduate Workshop for Surgical Investigators at the Study Center of the German Surgical Society Lars Fischer, MD,* † Thomas Bruckner, PhD, ‡ Markus K. Diener, MD,* † Martina Kadmon, MD,* Moritz N. Wente, MD,* † Stephan Sauerland, MD, § and Christoph M. Seiler, MD* † *Department of Surgery, † Study Center of the German Surgical Society, ‡ Institute for Medical Biometry and Informatics, University of Heidelberg, Germany, and the § Institute for Research in Operative Medicine, University of Witten/Herdecke, Witten, Germany INTRODUCTION: Only a small part of the daily work in the field of surgery is based on high-level evidence. To improve the rate of evidence-based medicine (EBM) in surgery, more surgi- cal, randomized controlled trials have been advocated. In addi- tion, it has been recognized that educational issues that concern methods and techniques of clinical research are of similar im- portance. Therefore, a clinical investigator course focusing par- ticularly on the issues of surgical trials was initiated in 2005. The structure of this course is demonstrated here as well as the results of its evaluation over the last 4 years. MATERIAL AND METHODS: All participants were invited to rate both the lecture and the teachers with the help of a standardized evaluation questionnaires (rating scale from 1 = excellent to 6 = insufficient). Lectures were evaluated via ques- tions on content, comprehension, and learning effect. Teachers were evaluated in terms of rhetorical abilities, content, and pre- sentation technique, respectively. Assessment of personal long- term learning effects was evaluated by an e-mail survey. RESULTS: Seventy-three participants were trained in a total of 4 courses. Participants in each course completed the evaluation ques- tionnaires. In 2005, 20 of 21 (95.2%) participants completed the questionnaire; in 2006, 11 of 11 participants completed it (100%); in 2007, 19 of 22 (86.4%) participants completed it; and in 2008, 16 of 19 (84.2%) participants completed it. The overall evaluation of the course was graded 1.52 for content and 1.72 for clarity, and the learning effect was assessed at 1.60. The 16 lecturers came from different institutions involved in clinical research and evidence-based surgery. Besides classic lecturing, the current assembly of the course consists of 6 lectures de- signed as hands-on sessions. A survey (48.5% response rate) with a mean follow-up of 1.72 years (range, 6 months to 3 years) revealed that the enduring learning effect was rated 2.09, and 70.4% of former participants actually participated in ran- domized controlled trials. CONCLUSIONS: The development of a clinical investigator course tailored to the needs of surgeons provides hospitals with a key tool for promoting surgical interest in clinical trials. (J Surg 66: 15-19. © 2009 Association of Program Directors in Surgery. Pub- lished by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.) KEY WORDS: surgical education, clinical trials, postgraduate workshop, evaluation COMPETENCY: Medical Knowledge, Professionalism, Prac- tice Based Learning and Improvement INTRODUCTION It is estimated that only 10% to 20% of current surgical therapies are based on the results of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and systematic reviews. 1-5 Therefore, the surgical community has to be described rather as evidence seeking than as evidence practicing. Numerous publications have asked for an increase in the quality and quantity of RCTs that focus on surgical interventions to an- swer some of the most important questions. 2,6-9 Recognizing that the knowledge and the implementation of principles of evidence-based medicine and clinical trials is particu- larly low for German surgeons, 1,10 the German Surgical Society (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Chirurgie) founded the Study Center of Correspondence: Inquiries to Lars Fischer, MD, Department of Surgery, University of Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 110, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany; fax: +49 6221-56; e-mail: lars.fischer@med.uni-heidelberg.de Journal of Surgical Education • © 2009 Association of Program Directors in Surgery 1931-7204/09/$30.00 Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jsurg.2008.08.003 15