Chung William T, Baxter Natalie B, Chung Kevin C
Section of Plastic Surgery, Department of Surgery, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, Mich.
University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, Mich.
Plast Reconstr Surg Glob Open. 2022 Nov 16;10(11):e4646. doi: 10.1097/GOX.0000000000004646. eCollection 2022 Nov.
The increase in virtual conferences during the COVID-19 pandemic provided unexpected advantages such as increased accessibility, while also creating concern about the effectiveness of online networking and career development. Given that a variety of conference attributes are impacted by changes in conference format, we sought to investigate how plastic surgeons prioritize key aspects of conference conduct.
We sent a survey based on conjoint analysis, a statistical method for evaluating consumer preferences, to active members of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. Respondents were asked to choose between pairs of conference options, each with unique attributes. Their answers were used to calculate feature importance values and utility coefficients for the conference attributes. Subgroup analyses were conducted based on demographic factors.
A total of 263 respondents completed the survey. Respondents were mostly White (181 individuals [68.8%]) and men (186 [70.7%]). Nearly half (122 [46.4%]) had been practicing 20 or more years. Conference attributes with the highest feature importance values (SDs) were cost of attendance (30.4% [14.2%]) and conference format (28.8% [14.2%]). Equity initiatives (14.5% [10.1%]), reimbursement for cost (11.1% [5.7%]), and opportunities for networking (9.5% [6.0%]) had intermediate feature importance values. Environmental impact had the lowest feature importance (5.7% [3.8%]).
Surgeons' conference preferences depend highly on format and the presence of equity initiatives, both of which can be incorporated or modified in future conferences to ensure inclusive and successful events. Meanwhile, environmental impact is less important to surgeons, suggesting a pressing need to bring sustainability issues to their attention.
在新冠疫情期间虚拟会议的增加带来了一些意想不到的优势，比如参会的便利性提高了，但同时也引发了人们对在线社交和职业发展有效性的担忧。鉴于会议形式的变化会影响多种会议属性，我们试图研究整形外科医生如何对会议举办的关键方面进行优先级排序。
我们基于联合分析（一种评估消费者偏好的统计方法）向美国整形外科医生协会的活跃会员发送了一份调查问卷。受访者被要求在成对的会议选项中进行选择，每个选项都有独特的属性。他们的回答被用于计算会议属性的特征重要性值和效用系数。根据人口统计学因素进行了亚组分析。
共有263名受访者完成了调查。受访者大多是白人（181人[68.8%]）且为男性（186人[70.7%]）。近一半（122人[46.4%]）有20年或更长时间的从业经验。特征重要性值（标准差）最高的会议属性是参会成本（30.4%[14.2%]）和会议形式（28.8%[14.2%]）。公平倡议（14.5%[10.1%]）、费用报销（11.1%[5.7%]）和社交机会（9.5%[6.0%]）的特征重要性值处于中等水平。环境影响的特征重要性最低（5.7%[3.8%]）。
外科医生对会议的偏好高度依赖于会议形式和公平倡议的存在，这两者都可以在未来的会议中加以整合或改进，以确保会议具有包容性且取得成功。与此同时，环境影响对外科医生来说不太重要，这表明迫切需要让他们关注可持续发展问题。
