EACTS Surgical Training and Manpower Committee
Annual Report February 2007

The committee was formed in its current structure in 2006 and the first meeting was held on 25^th of May 2006 and then again on 13^th of September 2006.

Members

Trainees Resource Group. It was decided to dissolve the resource group as a subgroup of the STMP committee. The committee will be formed by active and trainee members with a significant number of these. The committee will work a single entity.

Mission Statement
The Surgical Training and Manpower Committee is formed by Trainee and Active members. It is devoted to represent the views and interest of European trainees, identify issues in training and facilitate education.

The Committee aims to find common ground in current European Training Programmes in order to develop standards in surgical training. It will collaborate with other agencies in manpower planning.

The Committee will encourage Trainee membership of EACTS, promote communication channels and support academic activity. It will work together with other committees of EACTS (and other organisations).

Its members willendeavourto carry out their tasks with commitment and transparency and ensure accessibility to the Committee for all European surgeons in training.

Cardiothoracic Surgical Training in Europe : in search of a common structure.

Activities

Common curriculum:
The committee is putting together a draft of a proposed curriculum for training in Cardiothoracic Surgery. We have considered data from previous work of the committee on the current status of training in Europe, existing curriculum from UK, Germany, Switzerland, Spain Canada and US, and Final Board Exam requirements.

It was agreed that the syllabus from the European  School in Bergamo should be adopted.

The need for time dedicated to research was discussed, and it was considered that it should be part of the curriculum.

The committee acknowledges that a curriculum should include more than just issues relating to time spent and procedures performed and so, some thoughts on selection of trainees, assessment of progress and transfer of knowledge have been added.

Residents meeting:
As in previous years, the committee organised the Residents meeting during the Annual meeting in Stockholm.The result of the meeting was excellent. The four speakers (Professors Turina, Keogh,  Lerut and David) gave interesting lectures. We counted some 150 attendants which was considered a good number. Prof. Tirone David joined the Residents in a good dinner which had been organised in remarkable venue. Congratulations to Mac Kolowca for an excellent work. Search for new sponsors has been initiated. An alternative format for the meeting has also been considered.

Training Session Postgraduate Course Stockholm:
The plenary session had an attendance of over 100. Three lectures by Dr P Kappetein, Mr M Elliot and Prof McCullogh (General Surgeon from Oxford ) were of high quality despite the fact that Prof Elliott had to manage without slides.

Training in New Technologies:
A number of issues have been discussed on the different aspects of how new technology influences our practice, how to acquire the skills, where to teach them etc. It was thought that the new technology courses at the European School could be a good alternative to the proposed “Hands on conference” discussed with the ESCV surgery. It was proposed to further discuss the subject with the New Technology Resource Group.

Website:
It has been upgraded and will continuously be kept up to-date. Thank you for following the activities of the Surgical Training and Manpower Committee. If you have any comments, please contact the chairman.