TY - JOUR
T1 - The American Board of Surgery examinations
T2 - how are the Southwestern Surgical Congress programs performing compared to the rest of the United States?
AU - Al Fayyadh, Mohammed J.
AU - Rawlings, Jeremy A.
AU - Willis, Ross
AU - Falcone, John L.
AU - Stewart, Ronald M
AU - Dent, Daniel L
PY - 2016/12/1
Y1 - 2016/12/1
N2 - Background Our aim was to study pass rates of the American Board of Surgery (ABS) examinations for examinees from programs in the Southwestern Surgical Congress (SWSC) compared with the rest of the United States (Non-SWSC). Methods A retrospective review of pass rates of ABS Qualifying Examination (QE), Certifying Examination (CE), and QE/CE index from 2005 to 2015 was conducted. Results From 2005 to 2010, SWSC outperformed Non-SWSC in QE (88% vs 85%, P <.02), CE (86% vs 82%, P <.01), and QE/CE (77% vs 72%, P <.01). From 2010 to 2015, SWSC outperformed Non-SWSC in QE (91% vs 86%, P <.01) and QE/CE (77% vs 71%, P <.01) but did not achieve statistical significance in CE (83% vs 81%, P =.09). Conclusions SWSC programs outperformed Non-SWSC across QE and CE in the early period, but only on QE in the late period. We encourage SWSC states and regional surgical societies to evaluate performance on ABS examinations and collaborate to improve surgical training.
AB - Background Our aim was to study pass rates of the American Board of Surgery (ABS) examinations for examinees from programs in the Southwestern Surgical Congress (SWSC) compared with the rest of the United States (Non-SWSC). Methods A retrospective review of pass rates of ABS Qualifying Examination (QE), Certifying Examination (CE), and QE/CE index from 2005 to 2015 was conducted. Results From 2005 to 2010, SWSC outperformed Non-SWSC in QE (88% vs 85%, P <.02), CE (86% vs 82%, P <.01), and QE/CE (77% vs 72%, P <.01). From 2010 to 2015, SWSC outperformed Non-SWSC in QE (91% vs 86%, P <.01) and QE/CE (77% vs 71%, P <.01) but did not achieve statistical significance in CE (83% vs 81%, P =.09). Conclusions SWSC programs outperformed Non-SWSC across QE and CE in the early period, but only on QE in the late period. We encourage SWSC states and regional surgical societies to evaluate performance on ABS examinations and collaborate to improve surgical training.
KW - American Board of Surgery
KW - Board certification
KW - Certifying Examination
KW - Qualifying Examination
KW - Surgical education
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U2 - 10.1016/j.amjsurg.2016.08.023
DO - 10.1016/j.amjsurg.2016.08.023
M3 - Article
C2 - 27817825
AN - SCOPUS:84999293315
VL - 212
SP - 1243
EP - 1247
JO - American Journal of Surgery
JF - American Journal of Surgery
SN - 0002-9610
IS - 6
ER -