Developing Systems of Assessment in Educational Settings

Physician's hands typing on a computer

Systems of assessment are essential in medical and health professions education to track learner progress and identify programmatic areas for improvement. As part of an ongoing commitment to improving the quality of medical and health professions education assessment worldwide, Harvard Macy Institute leaders, Victoria Brazil, Bond University, and John NorciniFormer President and CEO of the Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research, discussed how these systems of assessment can be effectively developed and implemented.

Within the Harvard Macy Institute Podcast episode, they discuss four big issues that demand attention for leaders, clinicians, and educators working in undergraduate and graduate medical education:

Issue #1:

Summative assessment—and how much is enough

Issue #2:

Formative assessment—and how to use it well

Issue #3:

Assessment beyond the individual—including measures of process and team performance

Issue #4:

Assessment in the context of complex adaptive systems in health care


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