Development of a portfolio framework for implementation of an outcomes-based healthcare professional education curriculum using a modified e-Delphi method

Rakesh Datta; Karuna Datta; Dronacharya Routh; Jasvinder Kaur Bhatia; Arun Kumar Yadav; Anuj Singhal; Shamsher Singh Dalal

doi:10.1016/j.mjafi.2020.11.012

Development of a portfolio framework for implementation of an outcomes-based healthcare professional education curriculum using a modified e-Delphi method

Med J Armed Forces India. 2021 Feb;77(Suppl 1):S49-S56. doi: 10.1016/j.mjafi.2020.11.012. Epub 2021 Feb 2.

Authors

Rakesh Datta¹, Karuna Datta², Dronacharya Routh³, Jasvinder Kaur Bhatia⁴, Arun Kumar Yadav⁵, Anuj Singhal⁶, Shamsher Singh Dalal⁷

Affiliations

¹ Professor, Department of ENT, Armed Forces Medical College, Pune, India.
² Professor, Department of Sports Medicine, Convener MCIRC for MET & Coordinator, Department of Medical Education, Armed Forces Medical College, Pune, India.
³ Associate Professor, Department of Surgery, Armed Forces Medical College, Pune, India.
⁴ Senior Adviser & Head (Pathology), Command Hospital (Eastern Command), Kolkata, India.
⁵ Associate Professor, Dept of Community Medicine, Armed Forces Medical College, Pune, India.
⁶ Senior Adviser (Rheumatology), Army Hospital (R&R), Delhi Cantt, India.
⁷ Professor & Head (Paediatrics), Command Hospital (Air Force), Bengaluru, India.

Abstract

Background: The explicit declaration of Entrustable Professional Activities (EPA) and milestones are an essential component of a competency based medical education curricula. The present study attempts to develop a portfolio framework to document them for adaptation in any healthcare professional education curriculum development.

Methods: A modified e-Delphi method was used after incorporation of a study group of medical education experts (MEDEX-G). Consensus was defined as 75% agreement. Both qualitative and quantitative data was collected and analysed to conduct three rounds of the Delphi.

Results: The draft template was prepared by the core faculty of medical education centre. The final template was approved by the experts after 03 iterations of anonymous online voting and presentation of summary results by the moderator. The final template lists out the milestones of each EPA separately with provision for expected expertise and level, suggestive teaching learning activities and assessments, reflections by the students and feedback by facilitator for each EPA.

Conclusion: The MEDEX-G consensus template is an important development to encourage the adoption of portfolios in a competency based medical education curriculum. It can be freely adopted by various healthcare professional education bodies in various disciplines.

Keywords: Competency based medical education; Entrustable Professional Activity; Medical education; Portfolio.