Examiner-examinee gender concordance does not impact ratings on the American Board of Surgery Vascular Surgery Certifying Examination.

Objective: Implicit bias is a potential factor in the severity of examinee rating during oral examinations. Ratings may be impacted by examinee characteristics, such as gender, that are independent of examinee knowledge base, clinical judgment, or test-taking ability. The effects of examiner-examinee gender concordance in the Vascular Surgery Certifying Examination (VCE) have not been previously studied.

The vascular surgery in-training examination predicts performance on qualifying examination.

Objective: Vascular surgery trainees participate in the vascular surgery in-training examination (VSITE) during each year of their training. Although the VSITE was developed as a low-stakes, formative examination, performance on that examination might correlate with the pass rates for the Vascular Surgery Board written qualifying examination (VQE) and oral certifying examination (VCE) and might, therefore, guide both trainees and program directors. The present study was designed to examine the ability of the VSITE to predict trainees' performance on the VQE and VCE.

Is Initial Board Certification Associated With Better Early Career Surgical Outcomes?

Objective: To determine if initial American Board of Surgery certification in general surgery is associated with better risk-adjusted patient outcomes for Medicare patients undergoing partial colectomy by an early career surgeon.

Background: Board certification is a voluntary commitment to professionalism, continued learning, and delivery of high-quality patient care. Not all surgeons are certified, and some have questioned the value of certification due to limited evidence that board-certified surgeons have better patient outcomes.