[Sleifting from continuing medical education to continuing professional development. The example of the German assessment system for surgeons].

In addition to medical knowledge and skills, medical competency includes critical self-refection and professional mistake management, the ability to manage the administrative workload and techniques of professional communication and leadership. In addition to that physicians have to develop social competency and empathy for staff members and patients. Continuing medical education (CME) focuses on continuing development of medical knowledge and skills. To develop the additional aspects of medical competency the concept of medical education has to be broadened to continuing professional development (CPD). In different European countries and North America CPD includes a regular mandatory system to evaluate medical competency. Assessment systems like PAR in Alberta/Canada provide doctors with a 360 degree analysis of their daily work, showing the potential for future improvement. ECKO (Evaluation of Surgical Competency) is an adapted assessment system for German surgeons available on a voluntary basis. For the first time in Germany physicians are able to take part in a strength-weakness analysis of their daily work. They receive recommendations on practice improvement and an educational prescription for individual further education.