[The relationship between surgical and its subspecialty boards in Japan]

This article deals with a 7-year endeavor to reform the board certification system of the surgical specialty and its subspecialties. The most important lesson learned is that the societies running the board must work not for the societies but for trainees and patients. The new postgraduate surgical training program is an overlapping system composed of a general surgery program of 5 years and optional subspecialty program of 7 years. There are four types of subspecialty program: cardiovascular; respiratory; gastroenterological; and pediatric surgery. The written examination for general surgery is taken 4 years after the start of training. Those who pass it and experience 350 general surgery cases within 5 years are eligible for oral examination by the surgery board. Those who pass the written examination for general surgery and experience a certain number of subspecialty surgeries within 7 years after the start of training are eligible for the oral and/or written examinations for the subspecialty board. The surgical societies are responsible for constantly improving the quality of the surgical training programs and qualification systems so that board-certified surgeons are accepted and treated as true surgical specialists in this country.