IOE 899 Seminar Series: Stanley Hamstra, PhD, Milestones Research & Evaluation Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education

Stanley J. Hamstra, PhD

VP, Milestones Research and Evaluation Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education

“Learning Analytics in Graduate Medical Education: Realizing the Promise of CBME with Milestones Achievement Data”

Abstract: In 2012, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) introduced the Next Accreditation System (NAS) for improving postgraduate medical education. An important component of the NAS is a shift towards competency-based medical education (CBME), involving milestones as markers of achievement during training. Since 2015, the ACGME has been collecting milestones achievement data (competency ratings) on all resident and fellow physicians in accredited training programs in the USA (n > 110,000 residents and fellows per year). A critical assumption in CBME is that assessment data regarding any learner (in any form) contains some degree of uncertainty. At the same time, program directors must make finite/binary decisions about learners at the time of graduation, and indeed throughout training. The availability of milestones data, in the context of national trends, gives the program director an additional tool for making the best decisions regarding learner progression (and ultimately graduation). I will briefly review tools we have developed to help program directors make use of milestones data to enhance the quality of their decisions regarding resident progression and graduation. In addition, I will outline an approach to using the data for enhancing national curricula within a specialty.

Bio: Dr. Hamstra is responsible for oversight and leadership regarding research in Milestones and assessment systems that inform decisions around resident physician progression and board eligibility. Dr. Hamstra works with medical subspecialty societies, program director organizations, the American Board of Medical Specialties, and specialty certification boards. His research addresses medical education broadly, including competency assessment for residency training programs, and developing administrative support for educational scholarship within academic health settings. Prior to joining the ACGME, Dr. Hamstra was at the University of Michigan, the University of Ottawa, and the University of Toronto Department of Surgery. He has also worked closely with the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada on developing policies regarding competency-based medical education for graduate medical education. Dr. Hamstra received his PhD in sensory neuroscience from York University in Toronto in 1994.