What are potential factors for successful post-graduate medical education courses?

Postgraduate medical education of health care professionals is crucial for delivering excellence in medical care. With rapidly growing numbers of new scientific findings and steadily changing technologies, a demand for postgraduate medical training courses is apparent. Of those, surgical courses are of utmost importance as manual skills need to be maintained and as well as training new professionals on techniques. Several factors need to be considered when a successful outcome of such a surgical course is favoured. Selection of the adequate specimen, good accessibility of the course center, short transition times during the course, an adequate faculty-participant ratio, sufficient time for exchange between the participants and a comfortable educational environment. All factors need to be considered when aiming for the maximal beneficial educational effect experienced by the participant, which means that in the long term this will reflect in the healthcare provided by health care professionals.