Course Director: Odysseus Argy, MD    Dr. Argy is a board-certified general surgeon who holds an academic position at the Boston University School of Medicine, and has taught courses at Boston University's College of Communication.     Since 1984, he has had extensive experience as a public speaker with both general and medical audiences, including:  • four years on live television as the host and moderator of a weekly medical program  • 11 years as speaker and course co-director for an annual Harvard risk management course  • 14 years training more than 3,200 general surgeons to take oral board examinations

  Dr. Argy's background and how he created his courses:

   Television experience: From November, 1995 to May, 1999, he was the host and moderator of a weekly, live, one hour health program, Doctors On Call,on WABU-TV 68, a commercial television station in Boston, which is the sixth largest market in the country. Dr. Argy honed his skills in presenting information effectively under tight time pressure -- skills which are eminently applicable to the general surgery certifying exam. (You can see QuickTime clips of Dr. Argy on Doctors On Call, talking about flu vaccines, introducing the program on heart disease and discussing hypothermia in scuba diving safety. You can download the free QuickTime Player for Windows at http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/win.html) 

   The start of teaching board prep: For four years he taught for the Osler Institute's written and oral board prep courses. In order to teach more effectively, Dr. Argy reviewed thousands of exam scenarios dating back to the early 1980's. He learned what content was covered, how the content was shifting over time, and the various methods used by the examiners to ask questions and challenge candidates. He also learned the common assumptions and approaches that candidates typically had, as well as the usual pitfalls that caused candidates to have difficulties. He learned to identify the strengths and weaknesses of candidate presentations, and developed his own teaching techniques to allow candidates to overcome their difficulties. He quickly found that his own techniques were diametrically opposite to what other faculty were recommending. Personal feedback from hundreds of candidates praising his methods confirmed that Dr. Argy's techniques worked, and that the Osler faculty's approaches did not. Those students (and half the Osler faculty) urged him to start his own courses. In addition, the enormous course sizes of 150-180 candidates and the timing of running the courses just before the exam were clearly not appropriate for effective teaching.

   The shift to Odyssey: Dr. Argy stopped teaching for Osler in 1998 and began teaching with his own company, Odyssey, in 1999. Through Odyssey, Dr. Argy has been able to dedicate himself to teaching small groups of candidates, giving each individual surgeon the attention she or he deserves, and using techniques which are truly effective in preparing candidates for their certifying exams.

   Creating new, innovative and effective teaching approaches: Dr. Argy shared his understanding of the nuances of oral board preparation and further honed his simple, creative and innovative approaches to teaching board preparation. He was able to coach each and every candidate how to optimize his or her particular performance. The results were impressive. Within two years, based on his first 105 candidates, Odyssey had already achieved a statistically significant improvement in next-time oral board exam performance with a p<0.05. By the end of 5 years, the statistical significance had improved even further, to p<0.001.

   Summary: With Odyssey, Dr. Argy integrates his analytical understanding of the exam process, his surgical knowledge, and the presentation skills he mastered with his television and public speaking experience. When you prepare with Odyssey, you'll understand what the examiners expect of you, you'll learn powerful new study techniques, you'll see the most current exam content, and you'll master practical, effective organizational and delivery techniques which will build your skills and your confidence.