Evolution of the Royal College Emergency Medicine Exam

HISTORY of Emergency Medicine in Canada

• Emergency departments staffed by other specialists

• Rotating schedules• Interns and residents staffed with specialist

back up from home• 1977 CAEP was formed• 1980 Royal College designated Emergency

Medicine as a free standing specialty

With a Specialty..must come an EXAM!

Early FRCP exam process

• No emerg physicians existed to be examiners• Borrowed surgeons, internists, cardiologists

and paediatricians etc.• Met the night before over beverages• Brought their most difficult cases• City location rotated• Hotel rooms

Imagine this:

20 Years Later:

• Numbers of candidates have grown from 10 to 60

• Examiners are FRCP emergency physicians and Pediatric Emergency physicians

• All exams are done annually in Ottawa, usually at the Royal College Building

• Each year candidates get lost on the way going to the hardest place to find in Ottawa!

Standardized Exam!

Fair and Equal

• Each candidate is given the same question • Each examiner has the same marking scheme• All visual materials identical• Each member of the committee has input into

both the question and the marking key• In keeping with the way most other specialties

are tested• Very similar to the FACEP process