[Course system of the Working Group for Gastro-intestinal Surgery Davos].

Training in technical skills is essential for advanced surgical education. Training is moving more and more from the operating room to surgical training laboratories. A crucial impulse for this development came from Davos, where the first skills course was organized in 1984 after the formation of the Working Group for Gastro-intestinal (GI) Surgery (AGC Davos). Since this first course more than 5,000 residents have successfully completed the GI skills training course in Davos and many of the alumni are themselves teaching surgery today. The level and quality of this course has remained stable for 27 years on a high quality level although teaching has continuously been adjusted to modern techniques. The language of this international workshop is English. The number of applications exceeds the course capacity every year, which is an indication for the need of such training courses and should be principally included into the skills curriculum for surgeons.