The Revised Medical School Performance Evaluation: Does It Meet the Needs of Its Readers?

Publication Date

2019

Journal Title

J Grad Med Educ

Abstract

Background: The Medical School Performance Evaluation (MSPE) is an important factor for application to residency programs. Many medical schools are incorporating recent recommendations from the Association of American Medical Colleges MSPE Task Force into their letters. To date, there has been no feedback from the graduate medical education community on the impact of this effort. Objective: We surveyed individuals involved in residency candidate selection for internal medicine programs to understand their perceptions on the new MSPE format. Methods: A survey was distributed in March and April 2018 using the Association of Program Directors in Internal Medicine listserv, which comprises 4220 individuals from 439 residency programs. Responses were analyzed, and themes were extracted from open-ended questions. Results: A total of 140 individuals, predominantly program directors and associate program directors, from across the United States completed the survey. Most were aware of the existence of the MSPE Task Force. Respondents read a median of 200 to 299 letters each recruitment season. The majority reported observing evidence of adoption of the new format in more than one quarter of all medical schools. Among respondents, nearly half reported the new format made the MSPE more important in decision-making about a candidate. Within the MSPE, respondents recognized the following areas as most influential: academic progress, summary paragraph, graphic representation of class performance, academic history, and overall adjective of performance indicator (rank). Conclusions: The internal medicine graduate medical education community finds value in many components of the new MSPE format, while recognizing there are further opportunities for improvement.

Volume Number

11

Issue Number

4

Pages

475 - 478

Document Type

Article

Status

Faculty

Facility

School of Medicine

Primary Department

Science Education

Additional Departments

General Internal Medicine

PMID

31440345

DOI

10.4300/JGME-D-19-00089.1

Comments

Hofstra Northwell School of Medicine and Northwell Health currently do not subscribe to this title. If you are an affiliate and would like to access the full text please request it via interlibrary loan via Hofstra Northwell School of Medicine ILL (faculty and students only) or Northwell Health ILL

This document is currently not available here.


Share

COinS