Graduate Medical Education—Accelerated Change

Roadmap for cardiovascular education across the European Society of Cardiology: inspiring better knowledge and skills, now and for the future

AIMS

The provision of high-quality education allows the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) to achieve its mission of better cardiovascular practice and provides an essential component of translating new evidence to improve outcomes.

METHODS AND RESULTS

The 4th ESC Education Conference, held in Sophia Antipolis (December 2016), brought together ESC education leaders, National Directors of Training of 43 ESC countries, and representatives of the ESC Young Community. Integrating national descriptions of education and cardiology training, we discussed innovative pathways to further improve knowledge and skills across different training programmes and health care systems. We developed an ESC roadmap supporting better cardiology training and continued medical education (CME), noting: (i) The ESC provides an excellent framework for unbiased and up-to-date cardiovascular education in close cooperation with its National Societies. (ii) The ESC should support the harmonization of cardiology training, curriculum development, and professional dialogue and mentorship. (iii) ESC congresses are an essential forum to learn and discuss the latest developments in cardiovascular medicine. (iv) The ESC should create a unified, interactive educational platform for cardiology training and continued cardiovascular education combining Webinars, eLearning Courses, Clinical Cases, and other educational programmes, along with ESC Congress content, Practice Guidelines and the next ESC Textbook of Cardiovascular Medicine. (v) ESC-delivered online education should be integrated into National and regional cardiology training and CME programmes.

CONCLUSION

These recommendations support the ESC to deliver excellent and comprehensive cardiovascular education for the next generation of specialists. Teamwork between international, national and local partners is essential to achieve this objective.

Are Michigan State University medical school (MSU-CHM) alumni more likely to practice in the region of their graduate medical education primary care program compared to non-MSU-CHM alumni?

BACKGROUND

Over the past 10 years, three new MD schools have been created in the state of Michigan, while the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine (MSU-CHM) has increased their class size to 850 students. The aim of this study was to determine if MSU-CHM alumni who graduate from an MSU-affiliated primary care residency from a single graduate medical education (GME) training program in Michigan are more likely to go on to practice in close proximity to the location of their training program immediately after graduation compared to non MSU-CHM alumni. Changes over time in the proportion of primary care graduates who received fellowship training immediately following residency were also compared between these groups.

METHODS

A review of historical data was performed for all 2000-2016 primary care (Family Medicine, FM; Internal Medicine, IM; Internal Medicine-Pediatrics, IMP; Pediatrics, Peds) program graduates sponsored by Grand Rapids Medical Education Partners (GRMEP). Study variables included primary care program, gender, age at graduation, fellowship training, practice location immediately after graduation and undergraduate medical education location. Summary statistics were calculated for the data. Comparisons were made using the chi-square test or Fisher's Exact test when appropriate. Significance was assessed at p < 0.05.

RESULTS

There were 478 primary care program graduates who went into practice immediately following graduation, 102 of whom also graduated from MSU-CHM. Just over half of the graduates were female and the average age at graduation was 32 years. There were 152 FM, 150 IM, 50 IMP and 126 Peds graduates. Those that graduated from both MSU-CHM and GRMEP were more likely to practice in Michigan immediately after residency training (79.4% vs 52.0%; p < 0.001), as well as within 100 miles of GRMEP (71.6% vs 46.4%; p < 0.001). There were 8% of MSU-CHM primary care graduates who went on to fellowship training from 2000 to 2009, increasing to 34% from 2010 to 2016 (p < 0.001).

CONCLUSION

Medical school graduates of MSU-CHM who receive GME training in primary care are more likely to practice medicine within close proximity to their training site than non MSU-CHM graduates. However, plans for fellowship after training may add one caveat to this finding.

Resident Selection Beyond the United States Medical Licensing Examination

The resident application process has matured over the decades to become an efficient system. An unforeseen consequence of this efficiency is the massive number of applications that each orthopaedic surgery residency program must sort through to arrive at a manageable rank list. The most widely used filter in today's application cycle is an applicant's performance on the United States Medical Licensing Examination Step 1. Although no evidence exists to prove that this examination is predictive of any of the potentially defining characteristics of a successful resident, orthopaedic surgery programs historically have had few alternative options. A growing body of literature suggests that a more focused investigation of an applicant's inherent personality traits, as evidenced by his or her past accomplishments, as well as a structured use of questionnaires as part of the application process may improve the ability of orthopaedic surgery residency programs to predict who will be a successful resident.