Impact of COVID-19 on Society of Urologic Oncology fellowship operative volumes.

PURPOSE: The COVID-19 pandemic impacted all aspects of healthcare including surgical training. Our objective was to assess the impact of the pandemic on surgical case volumes of graduating Society of Urologic Oncology (SUO) fellows during the academic years 2019 to 2020 and 2020 to 2021. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Deidentified case logs for graduating SUO fellows from 2017 to 2021 were obtained from the SUO Education Committee. Cases are stratified by category and minimally invasive surgery (MIS) or open approach. Graduates of 2017, 2018, and 2019 were combined into a pre-COVID cohort and compared to COVID-affected 2020 and 2021 cohorts. Total case volumes, case category volumes, and surgical approach type were compared with Kruskal-Wallis test. RESULTS: A total of 173 graduating SUO fellow case logs were analyzed with 100, 38, and 35 in the pre-COVID and COVID-affected 2020 and 2021 cohorts, respectively. All fellow logs were obtained for 2017 to 2020 graduates while 5 of 40 were missing for the 2021 cohort. There was no statistical difference in median total cases across cohorts (P = 0.52). For the first COVID-affected cohort of 2020, they reported significantly fewer total MIS cases in 2020 compared to pre-COVID fellows (median 92.5 vs. 135 pre-COVID, P = 0.002). However, there were no significant differences among the tracked oncologic MIS categories except a statistically significant increase in MIS retroperitoneal lymph node dissection between 2020 and 2021 COVID-affected cohorts (0 vs. 2, P = 0.033) CONCLUSIONS: The oncologic case volumes of the initial SUO fellows graduating during COVID pandemic were minimally affected. This national deidentified data is reassuring that oncologic training has not been impacted by widespread decreases in case volume. However, impacts on individuals, programs or geographic regions may have varied.

Effect of COVID-19 on Graduating Urology Resident Case Logs: Analysis of the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education National Data Reports.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the national case logs of the first graduating urologic resident cohorts to have trained during the COVID-19 pandemic for effects on surgical volumes. METHODS: The nationally aggregated Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education urology resident case logs were obtained for graduates of academic years (AYs) 2015-2016 through 2020-2021. Case volume differences for tracked index categories were compared between AYs with a 1-way analysis of variance. Data were then combined into pre-COVID and COVID-affected resident cohorts and differences in average cases logged were analyzed with 2-tailed student's t-tests. RESULTS: Graduating urology residents logged an average of 1322 (SD 24.8) cases over their residency during the examined period. Total cases had multiple statistical differences between AYs but the only index category with a statistically significant decrease for a COVID-affected AY compared to pre-COVID AY was pediatric majors: AY 2020-2021 logged fewer cases than AY 2015-2016 (53.9 vs 63.0, P = .004) and AY 2018-2019 (53.9 vs 61.2, P = .04). When aggregated into pre- and COVID-affected cohorts, both pediatric minor (123.4 vs 117.5, P = .049) and pediatric major (61.4 vs 56.8, P = .003) case averages decreased for the COVID-affected cohort of residents, but no adult index category decreased. CONCLUSION: National graduating urology resident surgical volume for adult index categories was maintained through the pandemic. Pediatric cases saw a statistical decrease in volume of questionable clinical significance. This does not eliminate concern that individuals may have experienced a detrimental impact on their resident education.