Excellence Award 2025/26 edition winner speaks on their initiative
Dr Karl Lundblad, the recipient of the UEMS Section of Psychiatry Excellence Award 2025/26 edition, shares a few words on receiving the award and the Swedish Board Examination in Psychiatry he has been involved in.
It came as a pleasant — though slightly stressful — surprise when the Chair of the Swedish Psychiatric Association called to inform me that I had won a prize from the UEMS. At the time, I was cooking for my family and parents-in-law, as 7 April happened to be my 40th birthday. Jonas Eberhard, the Chair, then informed me that I would need to travel to Malta on 18 April to receive the award. Unfortunately, I had already planned a rather substantial birthday party with 80 guests on that exact date, which caused a noticeable spike in cortisol levels. Fortunately, it later turned out that the ceremony would take place via Zoom. Oh, the bliss of modern technology.
The prize motivation read as follows:
“The panel assessed the initiative as exceptionally strong across all scoring criteria. They highlighted its clear and direct alignment with the mission and objectives of the UEMS Section of Psychiatry, particularly in relation to the harmonisation of specialist training, standard‑setting, and competency‑based development across Europe. The panel also commended the initiative’s demonstrated capacity to contribute to a paradigm shift in national CPD structures, with credible potential for broader European applicability.
Although patient‑level outcomes were supported indirectly through evidence of improved training quality, the submission provided a well‑argued mechanism for clinical impact and was recognised as the initiative with the strongest overall strategic relevance to UEMS priorities.”
So what did I do?
In 2024, I initiated the Swedish Board Examination in Psychiatry: a 100-question multiple-choice examination aimed at psychiatry residents and specialists. In Sweden, examinations and formal testing have traditionally not been held in particularly high regard. Assessment of trainees and colleagues has instead largely relied on collegial evaluation — that is, workplace-based assessment conducted by senior colleagues. However, the Swedish Psychiatric Trainees’ Organisation has for many years advocated the introduction of some form of examination to complement the current system.
The examination is pitched at the level of “a highly proficient newly qualified specialist in general adult psychiatry”. Candidates range from junior and senior residents to fully qualified specialists wishing either to test themselves or use the examination for revision and continuing professional development. In that sense, the examination may also function as a form of progress test.
I have also been most fortunate to contribute to the European Board Examination in Psychiatry, a joint initiative between the European Psychiatric Association (EPA), the Psychiatry Section of the European Union of Medical Specialists (UEMS-PS), and the European Federation of Psychiatric Trainees (EFPT). Together, we work to develop the European Board Examination in Psychiatry (EBEP) — essentially the same concept, but on a broader European scale.
The process of identifying common ground across European psychiatric practice and constructing high-quality questions within agreed topic areas is both demanding and immensely rewarding.
As stated in the mission of the examination, the aim is not solely assessment, but also the strengthening of European collaboration in psychiatry through:
promoting the establishment of a strong foundation of essential psychiatric knowledge;
supporting the mobility of healthcare professionals throughout Europe; and
ensuring high-quality mental healthcare.
It has been a genuine pleasure to get to know the other question writers, and the journey has been guided by the most pleasant of sea captains in the form of Dr Andrew Brittlebank.
I look forward to continuing the work of improving assessment in psychiatry.
Attached you can see a picture of me right after receiving the prize at a Zoom-call (five minutes before my birthday party), and on the next picture a Maltese-glass-sculpture gifted from the UEMS.
UEMS Psychiatry Section President Dr Marisa Casanova Dias presenting the excellence award to Dr Karl Lundblad at the Spring 2026 section meeting