Gastroenterology Fellow Knowledge of Esophageal Motility and Manometry: Assessment and Improvement Initiative at an Academic Center

BACKGROUND: There is scarce information on the state of general gastrointestinal (GI) fellow knowledge of esophageal motility and the interpretation skills of esophageal high-resolution manometry (HRM).

AIM: This study aimed to assess GI fellow knowledge of esophageal motility and manometry interpretation.

METHODS: A 6-month educational program consisting of eight didactic sessions in the form of a weekly educational email, three didactic conferences, and handouts pertaining to the Chicago Classification (v3.0) of esophageal HRM was conducted. Both pre- and post-intervention surveys were collected using SurveyMonkey®. Five questions assessed fellows' knowledge of esophageal motility and manometry, and two questions examined their self-assessment of knowledge and confidence in managing esophageal motility disorders (EMDs). Descriptive statistics and Student's t test were used for the analysis.

RESULTS: Ten GI fellows (four first-year, five second-year, and one third-year) from a single academic institution participated in the intervention. Fellows showed a trend for better knowledge of the clinical aspects of esophageal motility over HRM interpretation (P value 0.09). On a scale of 1-5, with 5 being the highest, fellows' self-assessment of esophageal motility knowledge pre-intervention averaged 1.8 (SD 0.78) and post-intervention 2.9 (SD 0.99); P value 0.007. Fellows' confidence in managing EMDs pre-intervention averaged 1.7 (SD 0.66) and post-intervention 2.8 (SD 0.91); P value 0.04. Subgroup analyses, including fellows' self-assessment of knowledge, and fellows' confidence in managing EMDs, maintained statistically significance for level of training.

CONCLUSION: GI fellow knowledge of esophageal motility and manometry interpretation, as well as confidence in managing EMDs, improved significantly after a 6-month formal educational program.