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Medical students and junior doctors' development of practical surgical skills is poorly assessed because these skills are primarily taught during specialist training. Many surgeons in their enthusiasm for their craft are more than willing to teach and pass on the skills that they have honed. The Pan-Surgical Logbook ( www.elogbook.org ) gives a way to record this valuable practical experience in a web based database run by the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.
Background
The Pan-Surgical Logbook began life as the Orthopaedic eLogbook in the north of England in collaboration with the faculty of health informatics at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. 1 This evolved through several versions into its current form. More than 13 000 surgeons, in every specialty, use this e-logbook, and it is recommended by five of the surgical specialties in the United Kingdom and Ireland (the British Orthopaedic Association, the Society of British Neurosurgeons, the British Association of Otorhinolaryngologists, the British Association of Urological Surgeons, and the Plastic Surgery Trainees Association).
One of the cornerstones of the modernising medical careers programme in the United Kingdom is documentation and validation of experience. Web based portfolio tools are a well established method for junior doctors and surgical trainees to record their assessments, experiences, and reflections. In the formal annual review of competence progression (ARCP) a candidate's record is reviewed by...