The Japanese Society of Hepato-Biliary-Pancreatic Surgery (JSHBPS) was established in 1989. It was different from other societies in the concept of its inauguration, that is, it was founded for the purpose of educating and bringing forth surgeons capable of safely and reliably performing highly advanced surgery in the hepatobiliary and pancreatic field. At the meeting of the board of directors and the general meeting of the 16th JSHBPS held in Osaka in May, 2004, I declared, as the President of the Society, the establishment of the board certification system for expert surgeons. I will briefly explain the actual training system for HBP surgery in Japan. All new doctors after graduation from medical school in Japan are required to undergo 2 years of obligatory initial postgraduate clinical training in internal medicine, emergency medicine, pediatrics, and surgery. After this initial training, trainees advance to training in a specialty of their choice. Those who wish to become board-certified hepatobiliary-pancreatic (HBP) surgeons must undergo 4 to 5 years of specialty training in HBP surgery, while at the same time undergoing training 4 or 5 years toward board certification in gastroenterological surgery. To be a board-certified surgeon in gastroenterology one must demonstrate competence in procedures such as routine gastrectomy and colectomy. During training in gastroenterological surgery, HBP surgical fellows must perform 50 highly advanced surgical operations in the field of HBP and submit a video recording of the procedures to the board. The video recording is evaluated by three board-certified instructors at other institutes. Currently, there currently are 400 board-certified instructors at 190 board-certified training institutes in Japan. The first 12 board certifications in HBP surgery were awarded in 2011. These 12 new HBP specialists will go on to train the next generation of young HBP surgical fellows. In this collection of articles on highly advanced surgery in the hepatobiliary and pancreatic field, surgical and anatomical knowledge and surgical techniques in the liver, biliary tract, and pancreas are carefully presented by HBP expert surgeons. Dos and don'ts are also included. The surgical techniques introduced here are being practiced in the higher levels of board-certified institutions (HBP field) in Japan. It is expected that acquisition of such techniques and their practice in actual situations will improve the medical level in this field, contribute to social welfare, and enable further advances in HBP surgery.
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Tadahiro Takada (2011) studied this question.