Launching an Evaluation Office in Health Professions Education: A Roadmap to Successful Implementation

Abstract Information: Professionals in academic medicine have found it challenging to maintain rigorous program evaluation in various health education programs given high demand and resource requirements. Program evaluation plays a crucial role in advancing the quality, efficiency, and effectiveness of health professions education, making it an essential professional practice in this field. Evaluators have become fundamental personnel in the arena of health professions because they support faculty and institutional leaders in areas ranging from quality improvement to resource allocation and curricular advancement. While most academic programs apply evaluation at some level, resources are often limited and evaluation duties are often combined within other various roles, typically as an afterthought. There are an increasing number of medical schools investing in their evaluation capacity to meet the need of their educational programs. This need provides solid validation for building a larger volume of faculty and administrative leaders in the field of program evaluation within health professions education. One way this can be achieved is through the establishment of a diverse evaluation team with a range of professional backgrounds. This approach fosters the generation of innovative ideas and facilitates the effective implementation of unique strategies. This presentation will illustrate the six-step roadmap that the Office of Medical Education at the Case Western Reserve University’s (CWRU) School of Medicine (SOM) utilized in creating The Medical Education Research and Evaluation (MERE) Office. We aim to demonstrate our experience by serving as a roadmap for other institutions seeking to build similar programs, while highlighting the lessons learned through a process of refinement. We will provide this roadmap and lessons learned with a unique and valuable perspective as early to mid-career evaluators charged with increasing evaluation capacity in one medical school. We found that our office reflects the AEA principles of systematic inquiry, competence, and integrity within the roadmap and we hope we have exemplified a framework that other School of Medicine programs are able to foster and adapt.