Objective To determine the diagnostic accuracy of endoscopic ultrasound guided (EUS) fine needle aspiration in patients who had inconclusive endoscopic biopsies of the same lesion Methodology This retrospective study was conducted at Pak Emirates Military Hospital, Rawalpindi, Pakistan from Jan 2018 to July 2020. Patients who underwent EUS guided FNAC from June 2017 to July 2020 were screened. The FNAC results of patients satisfying the inclusion ciritera were compared with either a surgical biopsy in patients in whom surgeries were done, while in the remaining patients, EUS FNAC results were compared with a 3 months radiological and/or 6 months clinical follow-up. The final diagnosis was defined based on the following criteria: (1) Malignant lesions (n=36), histopathologic diagnosis obtained based on surgery resected samples (n=18) or clinical diagnosis as neoplasm based on clinical follow-up of symptoms (n=30) or radiologic diagnosis based on imaging follow-up at 3 months (n=13) (2) Benign lesions (n=18), benign cytopathologic histopathologic findings and clinical follow-up with no evidence of malignant progression or metastasis. Results EUS-guided FNA cytology turned out to be malignant in 60 percent (n=36) of the specimens. 30 percent of the samples showed benign epithelial cytology ( n=18) while in 10 percent  of the cases (n=6), the tissue samples were deemed insufficient for cytological diagnosis. The accuracy came out to be 66.6 percent (n=10 were true negative), sensitivity 93.4 percent, and specificity 100 percent.  Conclusion EUS guided-FNA cytology of the sub-mucosal upper GI lesions is highly sensitive and specific for upper GI lesions, which are negative on endoscopic biopsies.

Objectives: To analyze the systems and tools involved in assessment of skill procurement and demonstrating workplace skills in postgraduate medical training. Methods: This cross-sectional survey was carried out by enrolling trainee doctors currently working in Medical, Surgical, Dental and Allied specialties of the country by sending a validated and piloted questionnaire through email. Data collection was done from 20th April to 20th May 2021. Data was analysed using SPSS v. 21.0. Results: A total of 351 completed responses were received from 10 major cities of the country. Multiple aspects of entry-into-training, in-training and end-of-training evaluation showed poor correlation with the required training goals. A comparison of assessment for entry-into-supervised training (FCPS-I) versus independent practice (FCPS-II) showed a dismal situation regarding assessing affective skills like leadership, teamwork, coping with pressure and self-awareness. The concept of maintaining portfolios was completely alien to the trainees and the assessment tools used for demonstrating workplace skills were outdated. The lack of a continuous, periodic and balanced assessment (65%); detailed feedback (61.5%); fair exams (59%); variability in scoring system (58%) and professionalism of the examiners (57.5%) were the most frequently selected perceived flaws in the assessment system by the participants. Conclusion: There are multiple lacunae regarding competency-based assessment systems in our training programs and a massive scope for improvement. Assessment systems should be implemented as continuous process of learning, self-reflection, feedback and revalidation throughout the training tenure at regular and multiple points. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.38.5.5921 How to cite this:Alam L, Alam M, Shafi MN, Khan S, Khan ZM. Meaningful in-training and end-of-training assessment: the need for implementing a continuous workplace-based formative assessment system in our training programs. Pak J Med Sci. 2022;38(5):---------.  doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.38.5.5921 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.