Development of the European Colposcopy Core Curriculum: use of the Delphi technique.

The objective of this study was to develop a European competence-based colposcopy core curriculum using the Delphi technique. Thirty expert colposcopists from 21 countries participated. A four-round iterative questionnaire was used. Competencies were rated using a five-point Likert scale. Competences rated as 4 or more by at least 90% of the respondents were regarded as necessary for the core curriculum. Eighteen participants took part in all four rounds, and 27 were active in each of the last three rounds. Fifty-one core competences were selected from a list of 76 competences collated by the group as a whole. The majority (n = 44) of the selected core competences received a score of 4 or greater in each round. Overall, there was some evidence of increasing consensus but the individual shift in opinion was slight. The Delphi technique was an effective tool for obtaining an expert consensus and enabled group "ownership" of the identified core curriculum.