SAGES Advanced GI/MIS Certificate Program

SAGES partners with the Fellowship Council (FC) to offer fellowships in MIS and flexible endoscopy. The FC has a robust accreditation process for fellowship programs; however, the FC is not able to address certification of individual graduates. This situation is similar to the structure of residencies whereby the ACGME accredits programs but individual board certification is delegated to constituent boards of the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS). In light of this gap, sponsoring societies have developed programs for issuing certificates to graduates of fellowship programs who have met predetermined standards. The purpose of this paper is to describe the SAGES Certificate Process for Adv GI MIS and Flexible Endoscopy Fellowships. The SAGES Certificate program was developed through a rigorous process and has undergone recent revision to modernize the certificate criteria. Research has shown that as many as 80% of general surgery graduates go on to complete additional fellowship training. Given the number of graduates who complete this subspecialty training each year, general surgery board certification may not be an appropriate final benchmark. The SAGES certificate program joins a long list of certification pathways for surgical fellowship trainees in ACGME and non-ACGME programs. In the future, SAGES plans to assess competency in all of core content domains with validated assessments.