Certificate of Knowledge Exam Update

The next Certificate of Knowledge Examination in travel medicine will be on May 20, 2007 just prior to the opening of the CISTM conference in Vancouver. The exam committee was reconstituted following the Lisbon conference, and now includes many ISTM members who have successfully taken the exam and are sharing their insights into the ongoing development of this initiative.

A survey regarding the exam was performed during the Lisbon conference and was also published in NewShare thereafter. In sum, there were 286 respondents of which 30% were nurses and 60% physicians, 10% being other. The "other" category includes mostly pharmacists, public health personnel, and physician's assistants.

Virtually all respondents who hold the CTH would recommend it to others and most of those who do not have the CTH credential have some interest in obtaining it in the future. Those who hold the credential find it valuable and many of its benefits are intangible, such as the sense of the expansion of one's knowledge, skills, and personal satisfaction achieved. The most challenging aspect that was expressed was the fact that the exam is currently being administered only during the time of the ISTM conferences, thus location and timing are barriers. In addition, respondents expressed the fact that they would feel more inclined to take the exam if there were preparatory courses and materials to study.

The ISTM Executive Board has taken these comments seriously. There are currently 2 courses that will be offered in different countries to assist in exam preparation (see The Preparatory Course for the ISTM Certificate in Travel Health) There is also ongoing consideration of the administration of the exam during the regional conferences. Future activities include exploration into online testing.

In addition, we have recently heard from Canada that the ISTM Certificate in Travel Health is becoming one of the criteria to become a designated yellow fever vaccine administration clinic. This is certainly an excellent example of how developing a body of knowledge for the practice of Travel Medicine can impact the level of the standard of care in the long run.