Accreditation and Certification

ESHRE certification for embryologists

Steering Group

Carlos Plancha (PT) (Coordinator)

Bryan Woodward (UK)

Borut Kovacic (SI)

Cristina Magli (IT)

Catherine Plas (BE) (ESHRE Office)

Etienne van den Abbeel (BE)

Kersti Lundin (SE) (Coordinator Special Interest Group Embryology)

Background

IVF is clearly now a routine medical subspecialty. In the early 1980's, IVF was successfully established by clinical teams that incorporated collaboration with research scientists skilled in laboratory culture methods. In the absence of any opportunity for professional training in these methods, the laboratory aspects were subsequently undertaken by personnel from a variety of backgrounds, frequently with experience not specialised for laboratory IVF, or, indeed, with no laboratory experience whatsoever. As a result of this situation, the scientific aspects were learned either on an "apprenticeship" basis, or by self-education. Since the mid-1990's, assisted reproduction/IVF has experienced a revolution in biotechnology. The balance of assisted reproduction treatment has shifted so that its success is even more dependent upon scientific knowledge and expertise.

Continuous Embryology Education

ESHRE certified embryologists are now offered to renew their certificate through the new CEEC (Continuous Embryology Education Credit) system.

The CEEC system is intended to encourage embryologists to collect education credits, and thereby renew their embryologist certificate. This is a feature for ESHRE members only, and the credits needed for certification renewal should be obtained in three-year blocks. Specifically, senior clinical embryologists will need ten credits and clinical embryologists six credits, obtained over a three-year period, in order to apply for renewal of their certificate.

It is important to note that this is a voluntary activity, and like academic certificates, there will never be loss of validity from a previously obtained ESHRE clinical embryology certification.

Credits must relate to the field of embryology and assisted conception.

Improved application process for 2012

The application process for the ESHRE embryology certification exam has been improved and several modifications have been introduced.

1) Applications will only be processed via the new ESHRE web application at the ESHRE website.

2) The highest academic qualification will need to be translated into English, before uploading to the ESHRE website.

3) Starting from the exam 2012 ( application autumn 2011 ) the ESHRE embryology certifications will be extended to outside the borders of Europe. Only senior clinical embryologists will be able to apply at this stage and there will be a maximum of 60 applicants that can apply. ESHRE will have their highest academic qualifications validated by a recognized European institution. Only validated qualifications will be allowed for the exam. In any case, for this service ESHRE will have to charge 50 Euro.