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EPAs for Complex General Surgical Oncology

Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) for complex general surgical oncology launched on August 1, 2025.

UpcominG Webinar

Join us for a CGSO-specific EPA webinar
EPA Grand Rounds for Complex General Surgical Oncology
Friday, Aug. 1, 2025 | 5:00 p.m. ET / 4:00 p.m. CT / 2:00 p.m. PT

Join the EPA team leads for complex general surgical oncology (CGSO) as they review the CGSO EPAs, background, development, and best practices for how to assess CGSO trainees using the EPA framework.
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COMPLEX GENERAL Surgical Oncology EPAs for Trainees

How will CGSO EPAs benefit trainees?

Hear from directors of the Complex General Surgical Oncology Board of the ABS as they discuss how complex general surgical oncology EPAs will benefit trainees by providing more timely feedback than the current model.

Complex General Surgical Oncology EPAs are launching soon

Why are EPAs being implemented?

“As a faculty member, I think EPAs give me the opportunity and structure to provide feedback in a much more constructive way. For me, it takes away some of the noise that comes with evaluations … I find that I'm a little bit more honed in on the resident and their interactions with the patient or with me and the team, either during the surgery, the clinical visit, or in the consult.”
Callisia Clarke, M.D.
Callisia Clarke, M.D.Director, CGSOB-ABS
“I think EPAs offer a lot of advantage to faculty members … It gives you value in communicating to the residents and fellows. You can tell them what they're doing well and what they need to work on, and it gives you a better mechanism for giving real feedback that the resident fellow can use. Another great thing about EPAs for faculty is it gives you language to construct the feedback you give.”
Lawrence Kim, M.D.
Lawrence Kim, M.D.Director, CGSOB-ABS
“I think that those of us in surgical education have understood for a long time that we need a better way of both evaluating our trainees and also providing them feedback with how they're doing. Being able to do this in real time that is very specific and can lead to modifiable behaviors or areas of improvement for the trainee is really important.”
Bridget Fahy, M.D.
Bridget Fahy, M.D.Director, CGSOB-ABS

EPAs and Complex General Surgical Oncology Trainees

An EPA composite profile will be required during QE application

Beginning in 2028, all applicants to the CGSO Qualifying Exam (CGSO QE) will be required to turn in a composite profile across all EPAs when they apply for the exam. In order to assist trainees in developing a robust composite profile, every resident should be assessed on every rotation.

All program faculty should be trained to function as assessors to promote reliability and validity of the assessment. The use of EPAs for trainees at all PGY-levels to promote consistent habits of meaningful assessment and feedback, and to provide other assessment economies, is strongly encouraged as a best practice strategy.

For more details and information about EPA development, implementation, evaluation, and more, please review the following resources

EPA FAQs

Using EPAs to Support Struggling Residents Infographic

How EPAs can be used to support struggling residents by creating a shared language and a space for constructive...
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How to Use EPAs to Take Charge of Your Training Infographic

An infographic detailing how residents can use EPAs to take charge of their surgical training.
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Complex General Surgical Oncology EPAs Anatomy Visual

The 12 complex general surgical oncology EPAs and their relation to a patient's anatomy.
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Grand Rounds

ABS EPA Grand Rounds presentations for complex general surgical oncology

Programs can access a PDF of the slides used in this Grand Rounds presentation here.

Prepare for the launch of Complex General Surgical Oncology EPAs

What members of the CGSO community are saying

Why is the change to EPAs needed and what do these changes mean for trainees and faculty? Members of the Complex General Surgical Oncology Board of the ABS share their views on why EPAs are a valuable education tool.

Are EPAs meant to be all-inclusive of a given discipline – Lawrence Kim, M.D.
Why are we introducing EPAs into surgical education – Bridget Fahy, M.D.
How will EPAs improve the assessment process for faculty - Peter Angelos, M.D.
How much time does it take to complete an EPA assessment using the app - Callisia Clarke, M.D.
What excites you when you think about the implementation of EPAs – Oliver Eng, M.D.

Program Resources

Resources for programs to utilize prior to and during EPA implementation

The ABS team has produced a full suite of resources for programs to use during EPA implementation, which includes documents and guides, training videos, pre-recorded webinars, presentations, and more. Please note that any resource documents linked will be updated regularly.

EPA Implementation Checklist for Programs
Follow along this checklist during the implementation of CGSO EPAs to help stay on track.
View PDF
Clinical Competency Committee Worksheet
This Excel spreadsheet serves as a tool to help Clinical Competency Committees (CCCs) record summative entrustment decisions for each trainee in their program based on the formative feedback obtained through EPA microassessments in the previous six months. It is also the tool that will form the basis of use as a part of the application for the ABS Complex General Surgical Oncology Qualifying Examination in 2028 and beyond.
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EPA Worksheet for Clinical Competency Committees - Instructions
The ABS has provided a dynamic spreadsheet as a tool to help Clinical Competency Committees (CCCs) record summative entrustment decisions for each resident in their program based on the formative feedback obtained through EPA microassessments in the previous six months. These instructions include a link to the separate worksheet.
Read the Instructions
NEW TEXT: Complex General Surgical Oncology EPA Clinical Competency Committee Guide
This document is intended to be a resource for complex general surgical oncology program Clinical Competency Committees (CCCs) to utilize when reviewing trainee performance with the aid of EPA data. Each EPA phase of care has been linked to the related ACGME Surgery Milestones and can be found in the included tables.
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Additional EPA Resources

Performing assessments in the app

Complex general surgical oncology EPAs will be assessed in the ABS EPA App™ for surgical specialties

This step-by-step video walks the viewer through how to create a new assessment using the ABS EPA App™ that is powered by Firefly.

Learn more about the ABS EPA App™
Learn more about the ABS EPA App™
ABS EPA App Totals

EPAs by the numbers

The implementation of general surgery EPAs began on July 1, 2023. Since then, trainees and staff have been using the ABS EPA app to create and complete assessments. The data below shows the most current EPA numbers.  (Data as of December 31, 2023.) 

Total Completed Assessments
42722
Total Users Created 1 or More Assessment
7000
EPA Publications
Check out our publications related to the ABS EPA project
View EPA Publications
Contact Us
Let us know if you have questions about the ABS EPA Project
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