Influencing the national training agenda. The UK & Ireland orthopaedic eLogbook.

©2005 British Editorial Society of Bone and Joint Surgery doi:10.1302/0301-620X.87B9. 16433 $2.00 J Bone Joint Surg [Br] 2005;87-B:1182-6. A record of operative experience has always been a prerequisite for basic and higher surgical trainees. Although such records are usually examined during trainee assessments and hospital inspections, there has not hitherto been a systematic attempt to interrogate this data, which importantly reflects the day to day, “coalface” experience of trainees. There is no published data on the operative experience of a UK or Irish orthopaedic trainee before specialist registration. There is a widespread belief that the number of operations performed during specialist training is decreasing. Factors such as reduction in junior doctors hours of work and diversion of work away from training centres have major effects on patterns of work. The development of an elogbook has provided hard data on trainees’ experience and permitted insights into the “in training operative experience” of trainees in trauma and orthopaedic practice in the United Kingdom and Ireland and allows detailed analysis of the performance of trainee, trainer, hospital and training programme at the click of a button. Background The project began in the Northern deanery in 1998 and was adopted as a collaborative venture in 2000 by the British Orthopaedic Association (BOA) Education Committee, the Specialist Advisory Committee (SAC) in Trauma and Orthopaedics, the British Orthopaedic Trainees Association (BOTA) and the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (RCSEd). Funds were raised from the BOA, the Editorial Board of the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery , the Charnley Trust, the Wishbone Trust, Smith & Nephew, Johnson & Johnson and Biomet. Over several years a committed group of trainees and trainers tested several versions of the logbook leading to the current product. Responsibility for the project has passed to the BOA eLogbook Validation & Authorisation Committee (eVAC) and the current software was produced and is maintained by the Faculty of Health Informatics at the RCSEd.