Editorial: The International Council of Ophthalmology Examinations in Iran

Although in Iran we have a well developed examination system to evaluate the residents which is applied each year during the four years of training and there is a trial board examination at the end of the residency to obtain the certificate from The Ministry of Health and Education and also the continuous medical education is mandatory in Iran, at The Ministry of Health and Education they encourage the young physicians to improve constantly their medical knowledge and the best way to evaluate their learning is to participate in the international evaluation systems such as International Council of Ophthalmology (ICO) exams. Our young ophthalmologists have been taking ICO exams since 2001. 113 colleagues have taken the basic science exam (102 have passed) and 96 have participated in the clinical science examination (89 have passed). It is not only the question of passing successfully the exam but our fellow ophthalmologists have done quite well, 20 have passed it with merit and 12 with distinction. Ever since the creation of Watson award (2011) which is attributed to the person with the best score in both clinical and basic science an Iranian colleague has gained this award as the first candidate. Since the initiation of advanced ICO (2010) 9 of our colleagues have taken the examination and 6 have succeeded to obtain the title of fellow of ICO (FICO). Despite the high fees of these examinations for our young physicians I still recommend our young colleagues to take these exams to improve and to evaluate their knowledge. It is not a personal success for the participants but they represent the intelligence and the knowledge of our young ophthalmologists in the whole ophthalmic societies.