The American Board of Surgery examinations: how are the Southwestern Surgical Congress programs performing compared to the rest of the United States?
BACKGROUND
Our aim was to study pass rates of the American Board of Surgery (ABS) examinations for examinees from programs in the Southwestern Surgical Congress (SWSC) compared with the rest of the United States (Non-SWSC).


METHODS
A retrospective review of pass rates of ABS Qualifying Examination (QE), Certifying Examination (CE), and QE/CE index from 2005 to 2015 was conducted.


RESULTS
From 2005 to 2010, SWSC outperformed Non-SWSC in QE (88% vs 85%, P < .02), CE (86% vs 82%, P < .01), and QE/CE (77% vs 72%, P < .01). From 2010 to 2015, SWSC outperformed Non-SWSC in QE (91% vs 86%, P < .01) and QE/CE (77% vs 71%, P < .01) but did not achieve statistical significance in CE (83% vs 81%, P = .09).


CONCLUSIONS
SWSC programs outperformed Non-SWSC across QE and CE in the early period, but only on QE in the late period. We encourage SWSC states and regional surgical societies to evaluate performance on ABS examinations and collaborate to improve surgical training.
Department of Surgery, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, 7703 Floyd Curl Dr, Mail Code 7840, San Antonio, TX 78229, USA. Electronic address: Mj.alfayyadh@gmail.com.
Mohammed J
MJ
Al Fayyadh
Department of Surgery, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, 7703 Floyd Curl Dr, Mail Code 7840, San Antonio, TX 78229, USA.
Jeremy A
JA
Rawlings
Department of Surgery, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, 7703 Floyd Curl Dr, Mail Code 7840, San Antonio, TX 78229, USA.
Ross E
RE
Willis
One Health, One Health Surgical Specialists, Owensboro, KY, USA; Department of Surgery, University of Louisville, School of Medicine, Louisville, KY, USA.
John L
JL
Falcone
Department of Surgery, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, 7703 Floyd Curl Dr, Mail Code 7840, San Antonio, TX 78229, USA.
Ronald M
RM
Stewart
Department of Surgery, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, 7703 Floyd Curl Dr, Mail Code 7840, San Antonio, TX 78229, USA.
Daniel L
DL
Dent
D002568:Certification; D004521:Educational Measurement; D013502:General Surgery / Q000193:education*; D006801:Humans; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013044:Specialty Boards; D014481:United States
American Board of Surgery; Board certification; Certifying Examination; Qualifying Examination; Surgical education