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. 2019 Mar;20(2):369-375.
doi: 10.5811/westjem.2018.10.39293. Epub 2018 Dec 5.

Creating Consensus: Revisiting the Emergency Medicine Resident Scholarly Activity Requirement

Bryan G Kane  1   2 , Vicken Y Totten  3 , Chadd K Kraus  4 , Michael Allswede  5 , Deborah B Diercks  6 , Nidhi Garg  7 , Louis Ling  8   9 , Eric N McDonald  10 , Alex M Rosenau  1   2 , Mike Wilk  11 , Alexandria D Holmes  1   2 , Adam Hemminger  1   2 , Marna Rayl Greenberg  1   2
Affiliations

Creating Consensus: Revisiting the Emergency Medicine Resident Scholarly Activity Requirement

Bryan G Kane et al. West J Emerg Med. 2019 Mar.

Abstract

Introduction: In the context of the upcoming single accreditation system for graduate medical education resulting from an agreement between the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), American Osteopathic Association and American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine, we saw the opportunity for charting a new course for emergency medicine (EM) scholarly activity (SA). Our goal was to engage relevant stakeholders to produce a consensus document.

Methods: Consensus building focused on the goals, definition, and endpoints of SA. Representatives from stakeholder organizations were asked to help develop a survey regarding the SA requirement. The survey was then distributed to those with vested interests. We used the preliminary data to find areas of concordance and discordance and presented them at a consensus-building session. Outcomes were then re-ranked.

Results: By consensus, the primary role(s) of SA should be the following: 1) instruct residents in the process of scientific inquiry; 2) expose them to the mechanics of research; 3) teach them lifelong skills, including search strategies and critical appraisal; and 4) teach them how to formulate a question, search for the answer, and evaluate its strength. To meet these goals, the activity should have the general elements of hypothesis generation, data collection and analytical thinking, and interpretation of results. We also determined consensus on the endpoints, and acceptable documentation of the outcome.

Conclusion: This consensus document may serve as a best-practices guideline for EM residency programs by delineating the goals, definitions, and endpoints for EM residents' SA. However, each residency program must evaluate its available scholarly activity resources and individually implement requirements by balancing the ACGME Review Committee for Emergency Medicine requirements with their own circumstances.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: By the WestJEM article submission agreement, all authors are required to disclose all affiliations, funding sources and financial or management relationships that could be perceived as potential sources of bias. No author has professional or financial relationships with any companies that are relevant to this study. There are no conflicts of interest or sources of funding to declare.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
American Osteopathic Association (AOA) and Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) emergency medicine resident scholarly activity requirement.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Flowchart of the process in developing consensus on scholarly activity requirements. RDIG, Research Directors’ Interest Group; SAEM, Society of Academic Emergency Medicine.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

References

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