The ACGME Outcome Project in ophthalmology: practical recommendations for overcoming the barriers to local implementation of the national mandate.

Full Abstract

The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) Outcome project is a well-defined, 10-year, ambitious national mandate to improve resident education through the teaching and assessing of six general competencies (i.e., patient care, medical knowledge, professionalism, interpersonal and communication skills, practice-based learning and improvement, and systems-based practice). Over the past 5 years a Task Force at the University of Iowa has deployed 10 major competency assessment tools: 1) the University of Iowa residency curriculum; 2) direct observation using the Ophthalmic Clinical Exercise (OCEX); 3) journal club; 4) multi-source evaluation; 5) a modified Dreyfus scale faculty global evaluation form; 6) the Iowa Cataract surgical curriculum; 7) the Iowa Ophthalmic Laser curriculum; 8) traditional written and oral examinations; 9) self reflection exercises and projects; and 10) learner portfolio. We report our 5-year experience with an implementation matrix for translating the national ACGME mandate into local compliance. We identify the barriers encountered by our Task Force in local implementation and propose practice solutions based upon our experience for overcoming the cultural, institutional, financial, and other barriers to success. We hope that our institutional work and experience will stimulate other programs to participate more fully in the ACGME Outcomes Project.

Author information

Author/s: Lee, Andrew G (AG); Oetting, Thomas (T); Beaver, Hilary A (HA); Carter, Keith (K); Task Force on the ACGME Competencies at the University of Iowa Department of Ophthalmology;

Affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City, Iowa, USA.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Survey of ophthalmology (Surv Ophthalmol), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: -2009 Jul-Aug; vol 54 (issue 4) : pp 507-17

Dates: Created 2009/06/22; Completed 2009/09/02;

PMID: 19539838, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 9/4/2009, IMS Date: )

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

External Links for this article
(including full text providers, if available):

Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.

This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.