 a variety of structured assessment tools for use in surgical training have been reported , but extant assessment tools often employ paper - based rating forms . digital assessment forms for evaluating surgical skills could potentially offer advantages over paper - based forms , especially in complex assessment situations . in this paper , we report on the development of cross - platform digital assessment forms for use with multiple raters in order to facilitate the automatic processing of surgical skills assessments that include structured ratings . 
 the filemaker 13 platform was used to create a database containing the digital assessment forms , because this software has cross - platform functionality on both desktop computers and handheld devices . 
 the database is hosted online , and the rating forms can therefore also be accessed through most modern web browsers . 
 cross - platform digital assessment forms were developed for the rating of surgical skills . the database platform used in this study 
 was reasonably priced , intuitive for the user , and flexible . 
 the forms have been provided online as free downloads that may serve as the basis for further development or as inspiration for future efforts . in conclusion , digital assessment forms can be used for the structured rating of surgical skills and have the potential to be especially useful in complex assessment situations with multiple raters , repeated assessments in various times and locations , and situations requiring substantial subsequent data processing or complex score calculations . 
SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL