The Development of an Electronic Portfolio for Postgraduate Surgical Training in Flanders.

Background: Contemporary surgical postgraduate training is characterized by clear outcomes for the profession and an assessment program that shows that trainees master these outcomes. The tool used to collect assessment and feedback instruments is the portfolio, nowadays used in many countries worldwide.

Methods: The four Flemish surgical coordinators, together with experts from different universities, devised an electronic portfolio. This portfolio holds both the logbook, as imposed by the evaluation committee and assessment instruments used for the Master in Specialized Medicine.

Results: The e-portfolio is now used by a number of surgical trainees and has been approved by the evaluation committee. In 1015, all Flemish surgical trainees will be using one and the same e-portfolio.

Conclusion: Although the e-portfolio for surgical training has now been devised and accepted by all major parties involved, a lot of work has to be done to implement the instrument. As resident duty hours show no improvement on education in surgery (but rather a perception of worsened education) surgery training is fazing huge challenges.