What I Learned from Writing Questions for the Board Exam in Hair Restoration

As many of you know, I am an active participant in the education of other surgeons.  I run a national course on hair restoration and also participate as faculty in many workshops.  I also have written a textbook on hair restoration, Hair Transplant 360, along with many scientific articles on the subject.  Most recently, I flew out to Phoenix for a weekend to help write questions for the written re-certification examination for the American Board of Hair Restoration Surgery, of which I am a proud diplomate.

What I learned from an entire day locked up in a room with 3 of my colleagues and an expert moderator was the importance of clarity when writing exam questions for prospective examinees.  We had a very heated debate throughout the day about a question’s validity and also the clarity with which a question was posed.  To me, I did not mind ruffling feathers or making others in the room feel uncomfortable if the intended outcome was to have a clearer, fairer, and appropriate examination.  At the end of the day, we harangued and menaced each other until we got a workable 80 questions out for the next examination.  To me, I am very proud of what we accomplished but I am more proud of the intended outcome for the prospective examinees.

I think what I have learned from this process is always to think about the goal for a procedure, which in the world of hair restoration is to have a better result for a patient even if that means ruffling feathers during the procedure regarding quality control.  If we keep our mind on the goal, which is to have a better outcome, we can all as team members performing the procedure understand that challenging each other to be better is part of the process to achieve excellence.

Dr Samuel Lam is a board certified hair restoration specialist in Dallas, TX. To schedule a hair transplant consultation please call 1-888-866-3388, or visit www.HairTX.com for more info. To ask Dr Lam a question please visit our hair restoration forum.

I am very proud of our sell-out first year last year in which Emina and I co-directed our First Annual Hair Restoration course for budding hair transplant surgeons in St. Louis.  We have a stellar course lined up this year that is quadruple the size of last year with two levels for physicians and two levels for assistants.  I have also enlisted talented faculty and truly look forward to having another sell-out year.  If any physician or assistant is interested in training at our 2010 course to be held from July 23-25 (see the course description below), please contact St. Louis University directly for enrollment opportunities.

Best wishes,

Dr. Samuel Lam
Hair Transplant Course Coordinator

Dallas hair transplant surgeon, Dr. Sam Lam, would like to wish his hair transplant coordinator, Emina aka Yoda, a very special happy birthday!

Watch the fun video of Emina and Digna’s Birthday: