Education for GI endoscopists in Taiwan

The Digestive Endoscopy Society of Taiwan (DEST) was established at 1992. Since then, there was a training system for endoscopists. Latest revision of the training system was in July 2016.

In Taiwan, the start of endoscopic training for young doctors is after they finish their seven-year education of medical students and three-year residentship. The course of training of endoscopy is two-year and followed by one-year independent practice. Certification of Gastroenterology Society of Taiwan is needed for application to be a member of DEST. The applicant should present (1) stipulated cases of different endoscopic procedures, ERCP-related procedures, EUS, enteroscopy, etc and (2) participation of scheduled training programs. There are four components of endoscopy training system of DEST including teaching hospitals, instructors, basic endoscopy training programs and advanced endoscopy training programs. There are thirty one qualified endoscopy teaching hospitals of DEST. All the endoscopy teaching hospitals are reviewed every 3 years - setting of endoscopic units, ability of instructors, training programs and publications. DEST provides different basic training programs including basic endoscopic simulator course. DEST provides advanced endoscopy courses, including ESD, ERCP, enteroscopy, PEOM and GI stenting with certification system. For ERCP, certification system has been established in 2016. After qualification by DEST (writing & oral test), the endoscopists can get special certifications for different advanced endoscopy procedures though the post-graduated programs.

The current goal of endoscopy training programs is to ensure the safety of the patients, ability of endoscopists and the quality of endoscopic procedures, especially the new advanced endoscopic techniques.