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Objective: Medical students actively seek global health opportunities. Surgical residents also show great enthusiasm for international missions, rotations and global surgery. Unfortunately, only 18% to 34% of all surgery residency programs offer such international opportunities. We surveyed fourth year medical students applying for surgery residency to determine if international surgery opportunities offered by a program would influence their match rank list., Design: A 20 question survey was given to interviewees at our surgery residency program. Survey was optional and anonymous. We queried prior volunteerism, interest in global surgery and importance of international opportunities offered during residency., Setting: Hackensack University Medical Center, Hackensack New Jersey PARTICIPANTS: All candidates interviewing for general surgery residency at Hackensack University Medical Center from October 2019 to January 2020., Results: A total of 97 fourth year medical students interviewed, with a 66% response rate to the survey. Mean age was 27 years. 92% of students had volunteered during college and/or medical school. 41% of students had volunteered internationally. Majority of students were interested in a surgery residency program offering international opportunity. 78% of students planned to volunteer internationally after residency, and two-thirds planned to include global surgery in future career. Half of the students reported they would rank a residency program higher if it offered an international opportunity. Students who were immigrants were significantly more likely to rank a program higher in the match if an international opportunity was offered, compared to students born in the US (p < 0.05)., Conclusions: There is great interest in global surgery and international volunteer opportunities amongst fourth year medical students who apply for surgery residency. The majority of applicants have prior volunteer experience either locally or abroad. Majority of students plan to volunteer internationally after residency and are interested in academic global surgery careers. Students will rank surgery residency programs that offer international opportunities higher in the match., (Copyright © 2021 Association of Program Directors in Surgery. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: General surgery training programs face declining case volume and diversity. We wanted to determine if resident participation in international surgical missions would increase exposure to cases underrepresented in our program case mix., Methods: Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education program data from 2008 to 2011 (University of Medicine and Dentistry-New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ) were analyzed to identify categories where volume was below national average. This was compared with case logs from 3 missions conducted by International Surgical Health Initiatives between 2011 and 2012., Results: All chief residents completed more than minimum required index cases. Categories head and neck, alimentary tract, abdomen, and endocrine showed percentile below national average. Seven residents participated in 3 missions to Philippines and Sierra Leone. Sixty-five percent of the operations performed were in the 4 low-volume categories., Conclusions: International surgery missions expose residents to a high volume and variety of cases. Participation can be one way to increase case volume and diversity during training. Cases completed on missions with board certified surgeons should be considered for Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education credit., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)