Ds. Lane et al., PERFORMANCE INDICATORS FOR ASSESSING COMPETENCES OF PREVENTIVE MEDICINE RESIDENTS, American journal of preventive medicine, 11(1), 1995, pp. 1-8
Heightened national interest in population-based medicine, clinical pr
eventive services, and health care management underscores the current
need for definition and assessment of physician competency in these ar
eas. This article describes a project sponsored by the Health Resource
s and Services Administration (HRSA) to develop competencies for each
of the three specialty areas in preventive medicine and appropriate me
asures for the achievement of those competencies. We discuss fundament
al issues surrounding assessment that helped guide the process, types
of measurement strategies, and criteria for effective competencies and
performance indicators. The article also explains the Work Group proc
ess used to reach consensus and identifies concerns and challenges rai
sed during this process. We include the list of specialty competencies
and performance indicators developed by the project. The project, ent
itled ''Improving Training of Preventive Medicine Residents through th
e Development and Evaluation of Competencies,'' served as a model for
interorganizational collaboration between the federal government (HRSA
); a specialty society, the American College of Preventive Medicine (A
CPM); and a preventive medicine residency program, State University of
New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook. The commonality of competencies expec
ted of residents in all three specialty areas of preventive medicine -
occupational medicine, general preventive medicine and public health,
and aerospace medicine - reaffirmed the rationale for including all o
f these areas within the single specialty of preventive medicine.