The Surgical Council on Resident Education (SCORE) is a nonprofit consortium founded in 2006 by the primary organizations involved in U.S. surgical education. The goal of SCORE is to improve the education of residents (trainees) in general surgery and its related specialties and subspecialties. SCORE is focusing its efforts on the five years of progressive training that constitute general surgery residency in the United States, following medical school but prior to independent practice.
Contents
The main objective of SCORE is the creation of a standard national curriculum for general surgery residency training. The curriculum will be based on the six physician competencies defined by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and the American Board of Medical Specialties: patient care and procedural skills; medical knowledge; professionalism; communication; practice-based learning; and systems-based practice.
Curriculum Outline and Web Portal
SCORE publishes annually a curriculum outline that covers the patient care and medical knowledge competencies. The SCORE Curriculum Outline lists the topics that should be covered during a five-year general surgery residency, and for patient care, gives the appropriate breadth and depth for each topic. In the future, the other four competencies will be included.
SCORE has also created a web portal for residency programs, called the General Surgery Resident Curriculum Portal. The portal provides educational content aligned with the curriculum outline to general surgery residents and residency programs. This ensures that all general surgery residents have access to the same educational materials and resources.
Member Organizations
The seven members of SCORE are: American Board of Surgery; American Surgical Association; American College of Surgeons; Association of Program Directors in Surgery; Association for Surgical Education; Residency Review Committee for Surgery of the ACGME; and Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons. Representatives from these organizations meet regularly to guide the progress of the curriculum and web portal.