North American urogynecology fellowship programs: value of program website content

Abstract

Introduction and hypothesis Urogynecology fellowship program websites are an important source of information to potential applicants, especially given the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and resulting travel restrictions. Our study evaluated the publicly available information on American and Canadian urogynecology fellowship websites and present recommendations for website content development to promote the subspecialty of urogynecology. Methods Data were collected from all active American and Canadian urogynecology fellowship program websites between May and June 2020 against 72 criteria developed from previously published studies. The criteria included the following sections: Recruitment, Faculty Information, Current Fellows, Research and Education, Surgical Program, Clinical Work, Benefits and Career Planning, Wellness, and Environment. Results 54 American urogynecology program websites and 11 Canadian urogynecology program websites were analyzed. The mean score of American and Canadian websites was 46.46% ( n = 33.45 ± 7.20 out of 72) and 27.40% ( n = 19.73 ± 3.77 out of 72), respectively. American program websites scored significantly higher on available information than Canadian websites. The highest prevalence section across American websites was Wellness (64%, n = 1.92 ± 0.85 out of 3 criteria) while the lowest prevalence section was Clinical Work (15.17%, n = 0.91 ± 1.02 out of 6 criteria). Comparatively, Canadian websites scored highest in the Faculty Information section (43.12%, 3.45 ± 2.02) and lowest in the Clinical Work section (6%, n = 0.36 ± 0.67 out of 6 criteria). Conclusions American and Canadian websites thoroughly covered the Wellness and Faculty Information sections, respectively. Program websites should consider adding details about Benefits and Career Planning and Clinical Work. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00192-021-04808-9.

The Virtual Face of Colon and Rectal Surgery Training in the USA: An In‐Depth Evaluation and Analysis of Fellowship Programs Website Content

“…We reviewed colon and rectal surgery fellowship websites to obtain information in the following domains: (1) Program Overview, (2) Application Information, (3) Curriculum, (4) Fellows Information, (5) Alumni Information, (6) Faculty Information, (7) Research, (8) Benefits, and Incentives, (9) Residential Information/Housing Information, (10) Website Update Status. These ten domains were further evaluated by creating a 50-point score (Table 1) based on criteria previously assessed as website content variables in similar studies of different medical specialties [13][14][15][16][17] . If information about specific criteria was available on the fellowship website page or through any of the links of its sub-pages, the criteria were deemed fulfilled and granted a score of 1.…”

Structure and evaluation of preventive medicine residency programs' websites: A cross sectional analysis

“…These domains were further delineated into a 40-point criterion ( Table 1 ) based on the variables validated in previous studies to evaluate post-graduate training program websites [ 10 , 11 , 15 , 16 ]. Any data available that was available regarding a specific criterion was given code "1".…”

“…Given the ease of access, websites prove to be the most versatile form of information. Therefore, several studies have shown the importance of websites for residency and fellowship applications [ [9] , [10] , [11] , [12] , [13] , [14] , [15] , [16] ]. A survey of interventional radiology applicants determined program websites was an even more significant source of information for applicants than contact with residents and physician mentors [ 17 ].…”

How Comprehensive Are Canadian Plastic Surgery Fellowship Websites?

“…Our methodology has been validated in several recent publications [9][10][11]. This study was exempt from institutional review board approval as the data was extracted in its entirety from publicly available resources.…”