24 European Urology Today August/September 2009

The exam in Athens was led by Professor G. Alivizatos, chairman of the EBU Examination Committee. He personally presented the FEBU Diplomas. The pictures on these pages give an impression of the atmosphere in Athens.

AustriaBernhard AignerAndrea GnadManuela GruberJürgen HaasChristian HasenzagelStephan HrubyErik Randall HuberNicolai Jost LeonhartsbergerMartin MarszalekNike MorakisWerner SchoberRoman SzlauerAndrea Ulreich-Winterholer

BahrainNader Mohamed Awad Ahmed AwadMohamed Abdulla Mohamed Ebrahim

BelgiumGeert De Naeyer

CanadaPeter Boström

Czech RepublicMatúš Chocholatý

DenmarkGhayyath Hamed Jawid AtimashSalahadin Hassan Lamy

EgyptMahmoud Abdel HakimMohammed Abdou Abdel-RassoulAhmad Abulfotooh EidHany Mohamed Hamed Aly El FayoumyOmar Farid ElgebalyMohamed EmamAhmed GhaziRami Labib KamelWael Saber Afifi KandeelAhmed Mohamed Shaban MahrousAhmed Hussein MeabedOsama MotawaeAhmed Ismail ShoukryAhmed Yousef

FranceAyman AwadElias El KhouryBernard FarajMarwan SandidNajdat Yaghi

2009 FEBU Oral Examination - passing rate at 94%Well organised exams in three European cities

The 17th edition of the FEBU oral examination took place on Saturday 6 June 2009 in Athens, Budapest and Warsaw. Of the 262 examinees that participated, 247 were successful and received the FEBU Diploma. The average score of the total group was 7.7. This examination is part of the national exit exam for urologists in Hungary and Poland and is officially organised under the auspices of the the national urological societies in collaboration with the EBU Examination Committee.

The following urologists were granted the FEBU title after passing the oral examinations in June 2009.

$ Prof. Scarpa, one of the

Italian examiners, with some

successful Italian candidates

$ Prof. Alivizatos

congratulates Dr. F.

Al-Mashhadani from Iraq

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GermanyFaris Al-BadranSaddam Hussien Humoud AldemourAdel Farah Mufadi AlrabadiDaniel BaumunkThomas BschleipferThomas BuntenbroichEike Eichelberg-CurrlinFelix EngelhardtTom FischerAlexander GabuevCornelius Geil-BierschenkMarcus GoppeltChristian GratzkeGert HeineStefan HinzPatrick HoneckFlorian ImkampAlexander KarlAndreas Johannes LöserSimone MaasBernd MeisenzahlNasreldin Mohammed RamadanDaniel Porres KnoblauchSebastian Karl-Heinz SchäfersMichael SchulzeThomas SokolHossein TezvalDaniel Claudius VerghoChristoph Von KlotCarsten WachGunnar Wendt-Nordahl

GreeceStefanos AdamisVasileios AdamopoulosGeorgios DimitriadisGeorgios GeravelisKonstantinos IoannidisApostolos KafetsoulisStavros KazantzidisGeorgios KoutalellisEvangelos MazarisVaios PapadimitriouIoannis PapaioannouProdromos PhilippouOrestis PorfyrisCharalampos Thamnopoulos

HungaryZsolt DomjánGyula DrabikPéter JáromiTamás JózsaBéla KovácsTamás Kozma-BognárBassel MansourIldikó MeszlényiSeeyed Javad Mousavi NafchiIstván SüleczAndrás SzathmáriKinga SzücsPéter TóthTamás Zóber

It’s a pleasant Sunday morning in Athens and the temperature is approaching 30˚C. I’m sipping a Mythos beer in the shade of an umbrella whilst taking in the view of the Acropolis, satisfied with the new award - Fellow of the European board of urology (FEBU). Not bad considering less than 48 hours ago I was leaving the rainy shores of England.

So what madness drove me to sit yet more exams? I had always been impressed with the EAU’s approach to trainees and as a junior member I had enrolled on the European Residents Education Programme (EUREP) in Prague. This is essentially a revision course with the option for final year trainees to sit the EBU MCQ paper at the end of the week. Those who pass the exam can proceed to sit the EBU oral exam held at a later date. On the course I met several UK trainees who were using the week to prepare for the UK FRCS urology exam. This seemed a sensible strategy to sit both the European and English exams in quick succession whilst being at your most knowledgeable.

I eventually sat the EBU written exam in London in November 2008 along with 17 other hopeful candidates. In total, 227 trainees across Europe took the exam at several venues. The paper consisted of 150 MCQ’s, which had to be completed within 2 ½ hours. The paper was very fair with the questions being mainly clinically orientated and applicable to UK practice.

“So book your exam, make a long weekend break and embrace the opportunities of a European market!”

Two weeks later I was notified that I had passed the exam and was provided with a breakdown of marks for each urology sub-speciality. This latter feature was helpful in directing subsequent revision for the FRCS urology written paper that was conveniently held six weeks later, which I also passed. So far so good...

Next up were the oral examinations with the FRCS in May and the EBU equivalent in June. The FRCS viva involved answering questions on 16 different scenarios testing all of the urology sub-specialities. Although re-energised by the relief of passing the FRCS vivas, I did question the logic of rushing off two weeks later to sit another viva abroad.

However, on landing in Athens on a Friday night with the warm breeze that greets you on arrival, the ordeal

becomes more like an adventure. The vivas were held on the Saturday in a hotel not far from the city centre. Unlike the endless vivas for the FRCS, the EBU oral consists of three structured scenarios lasting just under an hour. My first viva covered paediatrics, the next penile cancer, with the final clinical based problem beginning with a BPH scenario which took a cheeky change in direction, turning into the management of bladder cancer.

The examiners were very friendly and encouraging throughout but expected knowledge to be backed up with reference to the 2009 EAU guidelines. Once the vivas are finished, the award ceremony was held later on that evening. The names of those who have passed are called out and the FEBU diploma is awarded to the applause of the other trainees. Very few people fail outright, with borderline candidates getting another opportunity to sit a pass fail viva that evening.My overall impression of the EBU exam is a very positive one. It’s reasonably priced, well organised with sensible, and clinically based questions giving trainees from all over Europe the chance to test their clinical abilities. To date, 188 urologists in the UK have passed the diploma – the total stands at 2617. Although FEBU is not currently recognised as a formal qualification, the number of UK trainees sitting the exam is likely to continue to rise.

So book your exam, make a long weekend break and embrace the opportunities of a European market. Who knows, that job in Tuscany is just round the corner!

The future is bright - the future is European!EBU Exam: a UK trainee’s experience

Mr. David PayneLeicester General HospitalUrology deptLeicester (UK)

payne_da@yahoo.com

European Board of Urology (EBU)

IndiaRamesh KamalakannanCherukareth Saifuddin SaheedSudhir Sukumar

IranHamidreza AbdiMohammad IzadpanahiMeysam JamshidiParham Masoudi

IraqAusama Saadi AbdulmuhsinIsmaeel Hama Ameen AghawaysHayder Al-ArdiYousuf Al-HallaqUla Al-KawazFiras Al-MashhadaniAmmar Aziz Mohammed Ali HasanSarwar Noori MahmoodEhab MohammadOthman MohammadAsim Suhail

ItalyFrancesco BeniaminLucas BernerMarco CosentinoMario GardiFabrizio LongoMichele PotenzoniMichele SalvettiNazareno Roberto SuardiAndrea Volpe

August/September 2009 25European Urology Today

$ Dr. Th. Bschleipfer from

Germany receives his diploma

% Some Middle Eastern

FEBU’s (left to right):

Drs. M.K. Alhalawany, H.M.M.

Abou Hashim, M.M.A. Emam,

M.A. Habous, A. Ghazi

% Happy FEBU’s from

Germany (left to right):

Drs. C. Gratzke, E. Eichelberg,

S. Maas, D. Porres Knoblauch,

D. Baumunk

% FEBU’s from South East

Asia (left to right): Drs. C.H

Ong, S.Y.Y. Woo, L. Boon

Cheok, C. Teo Chang Peng

% Dr. F. Beniamin from Italy is

congratulated by Prof.

Alivizatos

$ Dr. M. Arzoz Fabregas from

Spain was one of the

succesful candidates

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JordanOmar Yousef Ibrahim Al-AmirFaris Sabri Said AzzouniMohammed Abdulrazzaq Ali Hamandi

KuwaitAdel Wahba

LebanonWalid FalouPierre Sarkis

MalaysiaLee Boon CheokMohamed Ashraf Mohamed DaudSusan Yoke Yin Woo

The NetherlandsTan Quoc Trung TongHarm Van Melick

PakistanAziz Ur Rahman

PolandMichal BryczkowskiEwa CzapkowiczMarcin DluzynskiBartosz DybowskiPiotr FrackiewiczTomasz GadomskiWojciech GlazarAndrzej GolubinskiGerard GrotthussPawel JalmuznaRafał JedynakPiotr KalinowskiPiotr KaniaBeata Karwowska-BordzioPawel KieresAndrzej KierstanMaciej KisielNorbert KopecMichal KrawczynskiStanislaw Kwarcinski

Dariusz KwiatkowskiDaniel LewczakAndrzej LewickiBartosz MalkiewiczJaroslaw MarszalekLeszek MichalskiBartosz MisterekJarosław MozdzynskiDavid MusielakWojciech NarozanskiRobert NowakowskiMilosz OlczykDariusz OstapowskiGrzegorz PiotrowiczPiotr SatlawskiGrzegorz SulimkaRafal SwiecickiSławomir SzczygielMariusz SzewczykMichal TrabkaRafal WalczakMaciej WoronieckiMarcin ZarembaRyszard ZbronskiMarcin Zyczkowski

PortugalJosé Eduardo CarrasquinhoAndré Moreira Dos Santos SilvaLuis André Pinto Coelho Saraiva

QatarHecham Mohamed Mahir Abou Hashim

RomaniaAlin Adrian Cumpanas

Saudi ArabiaAbdulrahman Al AownAyman Ali Ibrahim AlbahtitiAyman Mahmoud AlbakriMohamad Kamal AlhalawanyAli AlhazmyJanan AlnajjarReshaid Abdullah Alreshaid

Ibrahim Abdullah AlshardiFuad AlshehabMohamed EltantawyMohamed Elsayed HabousMohammad Tarif Shaker KhalilHaroon Sabir KhanMahmoud Farouk Mahmoud AwadMuhammad Ejaz MunirSameer Abdulkhaliq Munshi

SingaporeColin Teo Chang Peng

SlovakiaMikhail Lozinskiy

SloveniaBorut GubinaTomaz Smrkolj

South AfricaDaniel Louw

SpainAna Agud PiqueMontserrat Arzoz FabregasJose Antonio Bellido PettiRoger Boix OrriJose Antonio March Villalba

SwedenFiras AbduljabbarBeata Maria Elisabet PerssonDagmar Dörte Schumacher

SwitzerlandAstrid BagotArnaud DoerflerMarkus FatzerJohannes Maximilian HauserAlexander MüllerChin Hu OngBeat RothBoris WeltzienPascal Zehnder

SyriaAmid Deyab

TurkeyKoray AgrasErsin CimentepeAlper EkenEsref Oguz GüvenYavuz Selim Sural

United Arab EmiratesSaad Michael Antowan

United KingdomWaleed Al-SingaryMohammed ElsaghirHashim HashimAbbas KhadraVivekanandan KumarSanjeeva Asvini Kumura MampitiyaShikohe Masood Samuel OsaghaeDavid PayneSyed RizviAdel Abdalla ShafikArun Kumar SharmaIoannis Tsiriopoulos

YemenFaiz Saleh Salim Bin BreakAbdulsalam Saleh

ANNOUNCEMENTFEBU Oral Examination 2010• 5June2010-Brussel

For more information and registration please visit EBU.com

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