Implementing Workplace-Based Assessments at Scale: The SIMPL Approach

Joseph B Zwischenberger; Sarah P Hatchett; Naveed A Rahman; Priyal Chadha; Stefanie S Sebok-Syer; Brian C George

doi:10.1097/AS9.0000000000000353

Implementing Workplace-Based Assessments at Scale: The SIMPL Approach

Ann Surg Open. 2023 Nov 27;4(4):e353. doi: 10.1097/AS9.0000000000000353. eCollection 2023 Dec.

Authors

Joseph B Zwischenberger¹, Sarah P Hatchett², Naveed A Rahman³, Priyal Chadha⁴, Stefanie S Sebok-Syer⁵, Brian C George⁶

Affiliations

¹ From the Department of Surgery, Diagnostic Radiology, Pediatrics, and Biomedical Engineering, College of Medicine, University of Kentucky.
² Colgate University, Hamilton, NY.
³ Department of Surgery, SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY.
⁴ College of Medicine, SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY.
⁵ Department of Emergency Medicine, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA.
⁶ Department of Surgery, University of Michigan, College of Medicine, Ann Arbor, MI.

Abstract

Over the past decade, medical education has shifted from a time-based approach to a competency-based approach for surgical training. This transition presents many new systemic challenges. The Society for Improving Medical Professional Learning (SIMPL) was created to respond to these challenges through coordinated collaboration across an international network of medical educators. The primary goal of the SIMPL network was to implement a workplace-based assessment and feedback platform. To date, SIMPL has developed, implemented, and sustained a platform that represents the earliest and largest effort to support workplace-based assessment at scale. The SIMPL model for collaborative improvement demonstrates a potential approach to addressing other complex systemic problems in medical education.

Keywords: assessment; collaboration; feedback; quality improvement; surgical education.