The diplome d'etudes specialisees is the French diploma that certifies completion of specialist medical training. Awarded at the end of the internat by the universities, it names the speciality in which the doctor has been trained and is the document on which recognition as a specialist rests.
French acronym: diplome d'etudes specialisees, diploma of specialised studies
DES, diplome d'etudes specialisees, titre de specialiste
specialist studies diploma
The speciality is allocated at the end of the second cycle through the national ranking, and the trainee then follows the programme of that speciality throughout the internat: successive clinical attachments, theoretical teaching, a portfolio of competences and a final assessment before a jury. Certain specialities can be complemented by transversal training modules or options, which add a recognised area of expertise without changing the speciality itself.
The DES is what allows the speciality to be entered on the roll of the Ordre National des Medecins, and therefore to practise and to be identified as a specialist. It is held alongside the state diploma of doctor of medicine, which is conferred by the these d'exercice. The two documents are distinct and both are needed.
A speciality title obtained in another EU member state and listed in the annexes of Directive 2005/36/EC is recognised in France through automatic recognition, without any French re-examination of the programme. A speciality title obtained outside the Union follows the procedure d'autorisation d'exercice, and the authorisation names the speciality it covers. For a doctor from the Maghreb intending to return home, the European speciality title is likewise the document the national procedure there will examine.
The DES is not a doctorate. It certifies specialist clinical training, while the academic title of doctor comes from the thesis. Nor is it interchangeable between specialities: a doctor who wishes to change field goes through a further training route, and the duration and structure of specialist programmes differ markedly from one speciality to another.
Free and no obligation.