The Effect of Feedback on Surgeon Performance:A Narrative Review

Surgeonsplayacriticalroleinthehealthcarecommunityandprovideaservicethatcantremendouslyimpactpatients’livelihood.However, there are relatively few means for monitoring surgeons’ performance quality and seeking improvement. Surgeon-leveldata provide an important metric for quality improvement and future training. A narrative review was conducted to analyze theutility of providing surgeons direct feedback on their individual performance. 'e articles selected identified means of collectingsurgeon-specificdata,suggestedwaystoreportthisinformation,identifiedpertinentgapsinthefield,andconcludedtheresultsofgiving feedback to surgeons. 'ere is a relative sparsity of data pertaining to the effect of providing surgeons with informationregardingtheirindividualperformance.However,theliteratureavailabledoessuggestthatprovidingsurgeonswithindividualizedfeedback can help make meaningful improvements in the quality of practice and can be done in a way that is safe for thesurgeons’ reputation.