European Board Examination

The European Core Curriculum for Emergency Medicine concludes with a short reference to possible future developments in Emergency Medicine in Europe. These include an examination or assessment to confirm successful completion of specialty training. A group of UEMS Sections and Boards recently established a separate Council for European Specialist Medical Assessment, CESMA, to seek to harmonise postgraduate qualifications. Those specialties which already offer a European diploma conduct their assessments in very different ways and one of the most important functions of CESMA is to seek to identify the most appropriate format to assure European accreditation of medical specialty qualifications.

The MJC/European Board of EM is a full member of CESMA and last year it established a Task Force in conjunction with EuSEM to develop a proposal for a European assessment in Emergency Medicine. This Task Force includes representatives from countries which already hold and which are developing such examinations as well as EuSEM members of the MJC. The chair of the Task Force is Dr Roberta Petrino, with Professor Helen Askitopoulou as deputy chair. Preliminary meetings have already been held in Milan and London. The next meeting will take place in Bucharest on 18/19 June 2011. The Task Force has a very important but difficult commission and it will probably be several years before the first examination can be held.