POS1457 ANALYSIS OF WORLDWIDE RHEUMATOLOGY POSTGRADUATE TRAINING CURRICULA: A MAPPING EXERCISE TO INFORM THE DEVELOPMENT OF EULAR STANDARDS FOR THE TRAINING OF EUROPEAN RHEUMATOLOGISTS

Abstract

BackgroundPrevious work has highlighted considerable heterogeneity in the organization of postgraduate rheumatology training programs. EULAR strives to harmonise rheumatology training across Europe with defined standards of key aspects of training including knowledge, skills and professional behaviors.ObjectivesTo analyse existing documents on postgraduate training in rheumatology and other related specialties available within Europe and the rest of the world.MethodsAs most documents were unpublished, key documents on specialty training in Rheumatology and 28 related specialties were retrieved by hand-search. We started with the collection of documents developed by UEMS (Europe), ACGME (USA), CanMEDS (Canada) and RACP (Australia). Then we searched for specialty training documents developed by other international Boards and we also sent emails to the boards or associations if no document could be found in their websites. Finally, we retrieved national documents from European Countries with a structured rheumatology training process, translated them into English using DeepL/Google translate and, in case of doubt, liaised with native speakers familiar with the documents. The content of all the above documents (including information about the structure of each document) was extracted into a standardized data extraction sheet.Results133 documents were retrieved. UEMS, ACGME, CanMEDS documents were available for all the mapped specialties, while RACP documents were retrieved for only 18 specialties. No American or Canadian specialty board developed additional documents on training, while in Europe non-UEMS boards of 11 specialties did (Table 1). With regard to Rheumatology, 2 separate documents for adult and pediatric rheumatology training were available from UEMS and ACGME while one document on adult rheumatology training was retrieved for CanMEDS and RACP. Upon assessment of the content of these 133 documents, we observed that their organisation could be competence-based (48%), role-based (47%), or problem-based (5%). When focusing on Rheumatology, content was fairly similar across international curricula, but several differences emerged in national curricula. These were mainly related to national regulations (e.g. rheumatology training as part of internal medicine training) and a different definition of mandatory/optional competences. The number of listed competences in the rheumatology documents ranged from 18 to 196.Table 1.Documents retrieved and extracted for each specialty. Rheumatology national training documents are not listed.SpecialtyEuropeUSACanadaAustraliaALLUEMSOther boardACGMEOther boardCanMEDSOther boardRACPOther boardRheumatologyxxxx6*Allergologyxxxxx5Anaesthesiologyxxx03Cardiologyxxxxx5Child and Adolescent Psychiatryxxx03Clinical Geneticsxxxx4Dermatology and Venereologyxxxx4Emergency Medicinexxxx04Endocrinologyxxxxx5Gastroenterologyxxxx4General practicexxxx4Geriatricsxxxx4Gynaecology and Obstetricsxxx03Infectious Diseasesxxxx4Internal Medicinexxxx04Medical Oncologyxxxxx5Nephrologyxxxxx5Neurologyxxxx4Occupational Medicinexxxx4Ophthalmologyxxx03Orthopaedicsxxxx04Otorhinolaryngologyxxx03Paediatricsxxxxx5Physical Medicine and Rehabilitationxxxx4Psychiatryxxx03Public Health Medicinexxxx4Radiation Oncology and Radiotherapyxxxx04Respiratory medicinexxxxx5Sport and exercise medicinexxx03TOTAL3011300300180119*2 UEMS and 2 ACGME document on adult and pediatric rheumatologyConclusionWe collected and analysed documents on specialty training in Rheumatology and other related specialties across a broad set of international sources. Most documents followed a competence-based or role-based framework; similarities and differences in the content of Rheumatology documents were detected. This mapping exercise informed the EULAR Task Force on the development of standards for the training of European rheumatologists.Disclosure of InterestsNone declared