MAKING AN IMPACT

About Eacts Academy

Education is at the heart of EACTS’ work. Our education programmes offer meaningful learning opportunities for surgeons around the globe to enhance skills and expertise in order to improve clinical practice and outcomes for patients. Through the EACTS Academy our members benefit from access to world leading surgeons and education. Whether a trainee or established surgeon, our high-quality education offers the right course at the right time to support career development.

Find out more www.eacts.org/educational-events/academy

Christian Heim, Managing Senior Physician

and Deputy Clinic

Director,

Cardiac Surgery Clinic at the

Friedrich Alexander University ErlangenNuremberg describes how drylab training through the EACTS Academy gave him the specialist skills and confidence to introduce an endoscopic mitral valve programme to his department.

In order to start a new MICS programme in my department it was necessary to advance my surgical education. To develop the specialist skills and knowledge required for this complex procedure I registered for the EACTS Academy Endoscopic PortAccess Mitral Valve Repair Drylab Training. The course was an extremely valuable learning experience, teaching all the defined stages of minimally invasive mitral valve surgery.

Courses offered by EACTS Academy, such as the drylab training, are incredibly useful for enhancing our clinical practice and critical for our ongoing professional development. As a result of this training and through the support of the mentor-mentee relationship we were able to facilitate the safe and effective startup of a MICS programme in a busy university heart centre.

EUROPEAN BOARD OF CARDIOTHORACIC SURGERY (EBCTS)

Driving high standards in cardiothoracic surgery

After pioneering the use of a remotely proctored system for the membership examination over the past couple of years, EBCTS moved away from online examinations in 2022 to deliver Level 1 Membership of the European Board of Cardiothoracic Surgery (MEBCTS) examinations in recognised test centres for the first time, including centres in Istanbul, Berlin, Riyadh, London, Zurich and Madrid. Forty-seven candidates sat the exam with a pass rate of 21%. These examinations are set at a high standard to ensure the highest quality of care for patients. The pass mark for the MEBCTS and FEBCTS examinations is calculated by running a standard setting exercise, using the Angoff Scoring method, in the days or weeks ahead of the examination.