title: A history of the American Board of Surgery: vignettes from the certifying examination: The Edgar J. Poth Memorial Lecture.
abstract: The American Board of Surgery was established in 1937 to certify surgeons who through training, experience, and examination meet the highest standards of surgical care. This lecture was given as the Edgar Poth lecture at the April 2015 meeting of the Southwestern Surgical Congress. Dr Poth was a surgical educator from the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston who was President of the Southwestern in 1963. The paper presents the history of the founding of the American Board of Surgery, with particular emphasis on the certifying examination-Part 2. Vignettes of occurrences associated with the "Oral" examination are given. The examination has changed substantially from a 2-day event involving an actual surgical procedure to the 90-minute quiz given today. The oral examinations remain an important part in the process of certification of surgeons of the highest quality.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Houston County Medical Center, P. O. Box 481, Crockett, TX 75835, USA. Electronic address: Jpatrickwalker@rocketmail.com.
authors.forename: John Patrick
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Walker
mesh_terms: D002568:Certification / Q000266:history*; D004521:Educational Measurement / Q000266:history*; D013502:General Surgery / Q000193:education* / Q000266:history*; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D006801:Humans; D013044:Specialty Boards / Q000266:history*; D014481:United States
keywords: American Board of Surgery; Certifying examination; Edgar Poth; History; Oral examination; Southwestern Surgical Congress