Establishment of a standardised and quality control-based training system for gynaecological laparoscopy

Over the last decades, a variety of training programs and models in gynaecological laparoscopy has been developed. These programs and models are currently being used in academic and non-academic training centres. Thus far, the results are promising with high satisfaction rates among participants.

At a European level, however, there is a lack of consensus on the definition of a program level as well as on the specific aims of each level and the strategies to achieve these. Rather, often these aims face the ambiguity of attempting just to expose the trainee to a particular technique or to ascertain the full acquisition of the theoretical and practical knowledge of the topic. In addition, many training programs have not yet been validated and their quality not properly controlled. A systematic evaluation method for both training courses and assessment of the trainee’s progress is lacking.

Since one of the main objectives of the European Society for Gynaecological Endoscopy (ESGE) is the ‘recommendation of standards for training in gynaecological endoscopy’, our Society asks all training centres and course organisers to actively cooperate in this matter. Our most immediate objective is to identify all European centres and courses offering training in gynaecological laparoscopy. We want to classify them within a standardised conceptual frame using consensual terminology. In order to achieve this objective we are currently working on the following issues:

1. Identification of centres in Europe offering regular training programs in gynaecological endoscopy.
2. Building a database of all courses held in Europe which include parameters such as target audience, objectives, techniques to be learned, duration, content, cost, number of trainees, number of lecturers/instructors, frequency, etc.

We would like to invite all European training centres and course organisers on laparoscopic surgery to participate and register by filling in the forms below and sending them to centraloffice@esge.org. Following this, you will receive a reply.