Towards Online Global Certification of Technical Surgical Skills: a Viable and Scalable Method for Assessing Technical Surgical Skills Objectively Using Remote Technology

To address the gap in surgical certification in countries where mandatory certification only consists of theoretical exams and does not assess technical skills, critical to surgical practice. We aimed to design a large-scale examination to certify surgical skills using simulation models and a digital platform for blinded, remote, and asynchronous assessment. Surgeons completing their professional title revalidation in Chile underwent an eight-station Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) with simulated procedures designed to test competency levels. All procedures were recorded from two video camera angles and uploaded to a digital platform for blinded video-based remote and asynchronous assessment. Four different assessment scales were used, with a passing score set by experts at 75