Part of NYU Grossman School of Medicine’s Web Initiative for Surgical Education (WISE), the WISE-MD course consists of a series of web-based modules designed to enhance the surgical education of medical students and healthcare learners by providing high-quality content on common surgical conditions. WISE-MD offers two types of modules: surgery and skills.

Content in each module draws on the experience of the WISE-MD editorial board, a team of industry experts from North America’s leading medical institutions, who are all members of the Association for Surgical Education and American College of Surgeons.

The surgery modules use a repetitive, standardized structure segmented into topics including fundamentals, history, physical exam, and surgery to highlight the process of clinical care. Learners are walked through a case from initial office visit to postoperative care. All learners have access to the same information, regardless of the variability of their clinical rotations.

WISE-MD consists of 22 surgery modules and 18 skills modules. The modules satisfy Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) requirements for clerkship education and provide uniform content to students at all sites as well as standardized reporting for faculty.

Surgery Modules

The following topics are covered in the surgery modules:

• abdominal aortic aneurysms
• adrenal adenoma
• anorectal disease
• appendicitis
• bariatrics
• bowel obstruction
• breast cancer
• burn management
• carotid stenosis
• cholecystitis
• colon cancer
• diverticulitis
• hypercalcemia
• inguinal hernia
• lung cancer
• pancreatitis
• pediatric hernia
• pediatric pyloric stenosis
• skin cancer
• thyroid nodule
• trauma resuscitation
• venous thromboembolism

Skills Modules

The skills modules cover the following topics:

• advanced communication skills: empathy
• advanced communication skills: implicit bias
• best practices
• epidural placement technique
• Foley catheter placement
• surgical instruments
• suturing and instrument tie
• two-handed knot tie
• ultrasound: abdominal aortic aneurysm
• ultrasound: ankle brachial index (ABI)
• ultrasound: basic principles
• ultrasound: breast
• ultrasound: carotid artery
• ultrasound: cholelithiasis and cholecystitis
• ultrasound: e-fast exam
• ultrasound: thyroid
• ultrasound: for vascular access
• ultrasound: venous

Learn more about the key features of our WISE courses and how to subscribe.