Preventing, curing or alleviating suffering from respiratory diseases has always been part of the European Respiratory Society's (ERS) mission. In that respect, promoting and providing state-of-the-art medical education, in order to achieve the highest possible standards of practice in respiratory medicine and to improve harmonisation of training across Europe, is a major priority for the ERS.
In 2005, in order to support these ambitious objectives, the ERS School established the HERMES initiative (Harmonisation of Education in Respiratory Medicine for European Specialists). The aim of the first project under this initiative was to improve the harmonisation of training in adult respiratory medicine across Europe. This project was led by a Task Force of 13 international experts. The first phase of the project, undertaken during 2005 and 2006, was to obtain a Europe-wide consensus to develop a European core syllabus for training in adult respiratory medicine. The syllabus was produced and published in 2006 by the HERMES Task Force 1, 2.
The extensive coverage that was dedicated to the 2006 syllabus throughout Europe certainly confirmed the merit and validity of the initiative. A survey performed across 18 countries in December 2007 revealed that seven countries had already proceeded to implementation, one was undergoing implementation and the remaining 10 countries already had plans of implementation in place. In addition, the syllabus is available on the ERS website in 24 languages and has been published in several national publications and on various national society websites 3–5. The syllabus has also been presented and discussed at 14 national and regional congresses.
Between 2006 and 2008, the HERMES Task Force moved on to the second phase of the project. The aim was to add to the syllabus by producing consensus recommendations for the development of a full European curriculum for training …
