The Endocrine Society is pleased to announce the launch of The Endocrine Self Assessment Program—In-Training Examination® (ESAP-ITE®). 

 The ESAP-ITE® is designed to:

  • Give endocrine fellows an opportunity for self assessment
  • Identify areas where endocrine fellows need extra assistance
  • Provide program directors the opportunity to evaluate their programs 

The ESAP-ITE® examination is designed for clinical endocrinology fellows in their second and third years of training. The ESAP-ITE® examination is not a qualifying or a certifying tool. It should not be used for determining who should be advanced in their program. It is designed only as a self assessment instrument.  The goal of the ESAP-ITE® is to assess progress in training, not to achieve a certain level of performance.  

Purpose of the ESAP-ITE®

Fellows may use the feedback from the exam to: 
  • identify areas of deficiency that require further learning
  • to compare their performance with that of their peers

Program directors may use the results to:
  • provide educational mentoring to fellows
  • develop curricula
  • validate the need for planned curricular changes 

ESAP-ITE® Background Information

The ESAP-ITE® is written by a committee of 8 expert endocrine clinician authors—at least one is a member of the APDEM. The committee follows a content blueprint and writes 50 multiple-choice questions that are subjected to several reviews and revisions. The questions are written at the level of proficiency expected from second or third year clinical endocrinology fellows and cover the spectrum of knowledge in clinical endocrinology.

ESAP-ITE® Blueprint

The blueprint for the ESAP-ITE® is modeled, in part, after the blueprint for the American Board of Internal Medicine’s certification examination in Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism. 2009 ESAP-ITE® Blueprint:
Medical Content Category  Relative Percentage 
Adrenal                                         10% 
Pituitary                                         10% 
Lipids/Obesity                             10% 
Female Reproduction               10% 
Male Reproduction                    10% 
Diabetes/Hypoglycemia            20% 
Calcium and Bone                     14% 
Thyroid                                          16% 
Total                                            100%

Dates for ESAP-ITE® to Be Administered

The 2009 ESAP-ITE® will be available for administration from April 1 to April 30, 2009. The 2010 ESAP-ITE® will be available for administration April 1 to April 30, 2010.  The Program Directors will decide which day within this period of time would be most convenient for them.  The examination will be online only.  It is advised that all fellows in each program take the examination on the same day and in a proctored setting. This is a “closed book” examination. It is anticipated that the examination will take 2 to 3 hours to complete. Reproduction of the examination in any way (eg, printing the examination questions) is not to be allowed. 

ESAP-ITE® Scoring

Test question analysis is performed to identify flawed questions, which are not included in the final score. The final score is a percentage determined by the total number of questions that are answered correctly. There is no penalty for guessing. Because the ESAP-ITE® examination is an educational implement, there is no pass/fail cutoff. 

Results of the ESAP-ITE®

A link to the online score reports is provided to the program directors about 8 weeks after the examination. The program director accesses a score report Web site and distribute the score reports to the examinees. The Endocrine Society and the Association of Program Directors in Endocrinology and Metabolism consider the results to be confidential and do not release them to any agency, organization, or person other than the program director.
Each examinee receives a report that shows:
  • The examinee's total percent correct score and percentile rank
  • A list of learning objectives from the questions answered incorrectly
The program director receives:
  • A score report and list of learning objectives for the questions missed for each fellow
  • An overall program performance report

Fee and Registration for the ESAP-ITE® 

Program directors must register their fellows by February 1, 2009 and make payment of $100 per fellow to The Endocrine Society. The examination is online and links and fellow-specific passwords will be mailed to program directors at least 2 weeks before the examination is administered. Additional registration information will become available in November 2008.

Program Directors interested in evaluating their fellows in the spring of 2009 should address inquiries to Robert Bartel, Director , Education (301-951-2606, or rbartel@endo-society.org).