A Consensus Definition of Creativity in Surgery: A Focus Group and Modified Delphi Study

Despite its importance in solving ill-defined problems in the operating room and fueling innovation, creativity in surgery has been grossly understudied by the research community. To facilitate its valid and reliable scientific study, we aimed to construct a definition of creativity specific to the domain of surgery, informed by existing conceptualizations of creativity and developed with surgeon input. We began by conducting a focus group of 11 highly experienced surgeons, with the aim of collecting data on surgeons’ perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs about creativity in surgery. We then developed a Delphi survey which proposed five surgery-specific definitions of creativity, based on existing definitions of creativity sourced through a systematic literature search and the focus group results. A total of 60 surgeons participated in the Delphi survey (34.8% response rate), with representation from all surgical sub-specialties. After two rounds, we achieved consensus on the following definition: “creativity in surgery is the interaction between expertise, environment, process, and motivation, enabling the generation of novel and useful products, ideas, and solutions to unsolved surgical problems or problems others have solved differently.” We discuss the domain-specific intricacies of the definition, as well as the implications of this study on creativity research.