Under the lens: utilizing trauma video review for performance improvement, quality improvement and resident and fellow education

Trauma video review (TVR) was first described in the 1980s by Dr Hoyt at the University of California, San Diego as a tool for quality improvement (QI). Since then, TVR has been utilized in numerous QI, performance improvement (PI) and education initiatives including resuscitation efficiency, procedural times and leadership skills of both the surgical and emergency medicine teams. To this effect, an American Association for the Surgery of Trauma (AAST) Annual Meeting lunch session was designed to serve as a roadmap for attendees to use to navigate both the implementation and utilization of TVR at their institution. This manuscript presents a summary of this session at the 2025 AAST Annual Meeting and reviews the basics of starting a TVR program, potential medicolegal issues that could arise and how to navigate them, and the various applications of TVR including QI, PI and resident and fellow education.