Training Delegates
Sample training regulations
With the revision of the Weiterbildungsordnung (WBO), which came into force a year ago, the Federal and State Medical Chambers have adapted continuing medical education to the requirements of today’s conditions. The introduction of this new WBO is welcomed by the DOG, especially the electronic logbook and the focus on the transfer of competencies. However, the experience gained over the past 12 months shows that this very positive new training regulation still needs considerable improvement.
This applies to ophthalmology in particular when teaching certain skills. A well-founded training, as it is aimed at by the revised WBO, requires the acquisition of competences that can only be taught in maximum care facilities (usually ophthalmic clinics). In particular, these are skills and knowledge that can be acquired in an interdisciplinary setting and in contact with patients suffering from rare, serious or severe diseases or with significant comorbidities.
A few examples:
- Treatment of polytrauma patients
- Complex operations on the ocular adnexa, especially the orbit, the lacrimal gland or tumours
- Team management of polytrauma patients
- Complex operations on the ocular adnexa, especially the orbit, the lacrimal gland or tumours
- Treatment of children, in particular ocular muscular surgery of greater difficulty
- Operations on the cornea of greater difficulty, particularly transplants.
- Post-mortem examination
- Ophthalmic pathology
- Genetic counselling
Doctors who train exclusively in the private practice will not be able to acquire these and many other skills to the required depth. The quality of training to become a specialist in ophthalmology, as required by the new training regulations, therefore appears to be in danger. The complete acquisition of this knowledge is currently only possible in a clinic that provides both outpatient and inpatient care (a recent survey of German ophthalmology clinics showed that 84% of their services are provided on an outpatient basis). For this reason, part of the training must be carried out in an hospital of Opthalmology and cannot be carried out exclusively in private practice.
Several state medical associations (Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saarland) have also recognised this fact and have therefore introduced a compulsory phase in the curriculum for training to become a specialist in ophthalmology, which must be completed in an ophthalmic hospital.
The DOG asks the other medical associations to follow this example and restructure the curricula for the training of ophthalmic specialists in their respective areas of responsibility to include a compulsory period of at least 24 months, which must be completed in an ophthalmic hospital.