HPB Surgery
EBSQ Examinations

To apply for certification as Fellow of the European Board of Surgery (FEBS) in the specialty of HPB Surgery offered by the “European Board of Surgery” and the “Division of HPB”, a candidate has to undergo a two-step quality validation process:  Eligibility (Part I) and Examination (Part II).

A candidate successfully passing the Eligibility and Examination will be qualified as: Fellow of the European Board of Surgery (FEBS) in HPB Surgery.

The Fellowship of the UEMS is a significant high-level indication of professional competence and excellence. It basically reflects the ongoing important European standardisation, harmonisation and quality assurance process in medicine.

At present, the fellowship of itself has no automatic legal recognition in the European Union or any other country. Individual recognition of qualifications by the national authorities is supported by the EBSQ committee and the number of countries officially adopting the Board exam is continuously rising. The future perspective of this European diploma is to be seen in unanimous legalization within the ongoing project of the European harmonization process of medical education.

The title does not in itself imply an automatic right to independent practice, nor does it automatically enhance participation in national social security systems of the European Union.

The candidate for the EBSQ title in HPB should be a future opinion leader in Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Surgery.

Eligibility requirements

To apply to the EBSQ examination in HPB surgery, a candidate must fulfill the following requirements for eligibility:

1. The applicant must have completed surgical training and :
   1. either is a board certified surgeon in a UEMS member or associate member country, and has accomplished the HPB surgical training in one of the UEMS member countries
   2. or is a board certified surgeon from outside of European Union countries, but has obtained a temporary license in a UEMS member or associate member country and has accomplished the two years HPB surgical training in a UEMS member or associate member countries.
2. The applicant must have a minimum of 2 years of training in HPB Surgery after surgery board certification. The training can be obtained in separate parts as long as these are contained within a 4 years period.
3. The candidate must have produced at least two peer reviewed paper as a first or second or senior author in the field of HPB Surgery.

The candidate must have a total of 20 credit points (CPs), as per the Credit Points document.

The candidate must have performed at least 50 major HPB procedures independent of a kind. As an example of major HPB procedure, major liver resections mean 3 or more segments of liver. The details of required HPB procedures are indicated in the Logbook requirements document.

Eligibility assessment

The Eligibility test is done in two steps.

• First step of the Eligibility assessment process:
  
  Applicants must fill out all fields of the application and pay the Eligibility fee in order to pass the first part of the Eligibility assessment. The payment of the Eligibility fee is a mandatory step for your application to be taken into account by the Eligibility Board.

• Second step of the Eligibility assessment process:
  
  Those who are successful will receive a Medbook code to create an account on the www.Medbook.com platform. They will have to enter all the requested information and to inform their URL Medbook profile on their EBSQ application form, so that the Eligibility Board can consult it and proceed to the second and final part of the Eligibility assessment.
  
  The applicant will be informed of the acceptance or rejection of his/her application in due time.
  
  Candidates who pass the second part of the Eligibility assessment process will be asked to pay the Examination fee (600 euros) to finalise their registration for the EBSQ examination. The payment of the Examination fee is a mandatory step for your application to be finalized and taken into account by the Examination Board.

Application documents

Application to the EBSQ Examination in Abdominal Wall Surgery is composed of the following documents.

Please download the following documents:

The total fee for applying for the EBSQ Examination in HPB Surgery is €850:

• €250 for the Eligibility Assessment
• €600 for the Examination

Payments must be made via Paypal directly on the QuizOne platform dedicated to registrations before the deadlines dates.

The eligibility fee is to be paid when the applicant registers for the exam.

The examination fee should be paid once the eligibility of the applicant has been confirmed, within two weeks following confirmation of selection, to finalise the registration for the examination.

All fees paid are non-refundable. The exam fee may be transferred to another exam sitting if more than 30 days’ notice is given.

For those who have been assessed eligible, you may postpone for up to 24 months without having to pass and pay the eligibility assessment again. After 24 months you must go through the eligibility assessment again.

The examination can be repeated up to 3 times in 3 years in case of failure (ie: maximum 3 attempts in total).

Cancellation/Postponement up to 30 days before the exam:

• Exam fees (if paid) postponed to next sitting + an admin charge of 90 euro will be charged when candidate re-apply for the exam.

Cancellation/Postponement less than 30 days before the exam:

• Exam fees are not transferred to the next exam and not refundable.  When re-applying for the exam, the candidate must pay the exam fee again + 90 euros administration fee.

Reasonable cancellations within 30 days of the exam will be considered on a case by case basis at the discretion of the Board of Examination. Supporting documentation is required.

For those who have been assessed eligible, you may postpone for up to 24 months without having to pass and pay the eligibility assessment again. After 24 months you must go through the eligibility assessment again and pay its fee. 

All fees paid are non-refundable.

Fellows are responsible for their Certificates.

If there is an error on your certificate you must contact the office within 3 months of receiving the certificate to have the certificate reissued.

If you lost your certificate:

If you are a Fellow who already passed the EBSQ examination , and you wish your certificate re-issued, you need to provide a copy of your ID card or Passport (for EU citizens) or Passport (Citizens from outside EU). You also need to provide a valid reason for needing a re-issue of your Certificate.

Please note :

-after internal revision further documentation could be requested
-the certificate will be sent with DHL post delivery service.
-the price to request a copy is 300 euros, and includes DHL costs

The Examination is held once or twice a year and takes place over a single day.

Examinations in HPB are only offered in English.

The written exam (multiple choice questions) takes place at the same examination center and on the same day as the oral exam. Candidates should bring their own laptop, as the examination is conducted on the UEMS online examination platform. The fact that a candidate does not have a laptop should not prevent them from taking the exam, we will ensure that a laptop is provided.

The oral exam consists of 3 consecutive 30 minutes sessions. Each session consists of two or three clinical cases discussions. Clinical cases are presented in a digital format with patient’s history and imaging.

Examiners will ask specific questions based on patient’s data, surgical technique, controversies and available clinical trials on the subject.

The exam includes the questions from the following areas:

• HPB anatomy
• HPB Physiology
• Medical aspects (non-technical skills)
• Liver
• Pancreas
• Bile Duct
• Portal Hypertension
• HPB Minimally Invasive Surgery

Pass mark

The “pass mark” of the written exam is different every year. It is calculated before the exam using international standard-setting procedure (Anghoff Scoring) and depends on complexity of the questions. Calculated values are usually (not always) 75%. Percentiles based system (Cohen) is not used.

A candidate successfully passing the examination will be qualified as: Fellow of the European Board of Surgery in HPB Surery (F.E.B.S. HPB Surg) and is provided with the relevant certificate. The Fellowship of the UEMS is a significant high-level indication of professional competence and excellence. It basically reflects the ongoing important European standardisation, harmonisation and quality assurance process in medicine.