Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges
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Use of social networking programs like Facebook and Twitter, which enable the public sharing of diverse content over the Internet, has risen dramatically in recent years. Although health professionals have faced consequences for clearly unethical online behavior, a relatively unexamined practice among medical students is the disclosure of patient care stories on social media in a manner that is technically compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, yet is ethically questionable. ⋯ Consequences include the possibility of undermining public trust in the profession, inadvertently identifying patients, and violating expectations of privacy. The authors recommend that medical schools explicitly address these issues across the preclinical and clinical curricula and emphasize that patient-related postings on social media may carry inherent risks both to patients and to the profession.
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To understand the disciplinary contexts in which faculty work, the authors examined demographics, professional characteristics, research productivity, and advancement across seven clinical departments at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and nationally. ⋯ There were differences in demographics, professional characteristics, and advancement across clinical departments at HMS and nationally. The context in which faculty work, of which department is a proxy, should be accounted for in research on faculty career outcomes and diversity inclusion in academic medicine.
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To compare procedure-specific checklists and a global rating scale in assessing technical competence. ⋯ Assessment using a global rating scale may be superior to assessment using a checklist for evaluation of technical competence. Traditional standard-setting methods may establish checklist cut scores with too-low specificity: High checklist scores did not rule out incompetence. The role of clinically significant errors in determining procedural competence should be further evaluated.
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Multicenter Study
Reviewing residents' competence: a qualitative study of the role of clinical competency committees in performance assessment.
Clinical competency committees (CCCs) are now required in graduate medical education. This study examined how residency programs understand and operationalize this mandate for resident performance review. ⋯ Institutions orient resident performance review toward problem identification; a developmental approach is uncommon. Clarifying the purpose of resident performance review and employing efficient information systems that synthesize performance data and engage residents and faculty in purposeful feedback discussions could enable the meaningful implementation of milestones-based assessment.