Abstract
The Endoscopic Surgical Skill Qualification system in Urological Laparoscopy started in 2004 with the cooperation of the societies of surgical subspecialties. Over these past 6 years, a total of 906 urologists applied to the system, and 564 were qualified after skill assessments on non-edited videotapes, resulting in a pass rate of 62.3%. The pass rates of the first, second and more than third-time applicants were 62.2%, 64.1% and 55.6%, respectively. The pass-or-fail agreement rate among the 2 referees on each video tape assessment was 65.7%. Although statistical analyses on the results of the video assessments by each referees revealed that several referees deviated significantly from the other referees, the final pass rates of the videos assessed by each referee were statistically similar among the various referees. In the near future, further improvements in the reliability of video assessments by referees and the validation of the usefulness of this system will be required.
