Developing the Swedish national certification for echocardiography

The European Society of Cardiology and its largest subsidiary body, the European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging started a certification programme in 2004, its take up in Sweden has been minimal because of a number of reasons: Firstly, it is not mandatory and examinations take place just once a year at an annual congress which requires costly travel. Secondly, the practical element of the examination is logistically challenging where specificaly collecting the 250 cases to be sent to the committee for assessment has created an administrative workload which can be very challenging for the candidate. Thirdly, the European examination is in English, which is often an additional barrier, at least for some of the echocardiographic practitioners.