Resident clinical dashboards to support precision education in emergency medicine

Introduction

With the move toward competency-based medical education (CBME), data from the electronic health record (EHR) for informed self-improvement may be valuable as a part of programmatic assessment. Personalized dashboards are one way to view these clinical data. The purpose of this concept paper is to summarize the current state of clinical dashboards as they can be utilized by emergency medicine (EM) residency programs.

Methods

The author group consisted of EM physicians from multiple institutions with medical education and informatics backgrounds and was identified by querying faculty presenting on resident clinical dashboards at the 2024 Society for Academic Emergency Medicine conference. Additional authors were identified by members of the initial group. Best practice literature was referenced; if none was available, group consensus was used.

Categories of Metrics

Clinical exposures as well as efficiency, quality, documentation, and diversity metrics may be included in a resident dashboard. Resident dashboard metrics should focus on resident-sensitive measures rather than those primarily affected by attendings or systems-based factors.

Considerations for Implementation

Implementation of these dashboards requires the technical expertise to turn EHR data into actionable data, a process called EHR phenotyping. The dashboard can be housed directly in the EHR or on a separate platform. Dashboard developers should consider how their implementation plan will affect how often dashboard data will be refreshed and how to best display the data for ease of understanding.

Implications for Education & Training

Dashboards can provide objective data to residents, residency leadership and clinical competency committees as they identify areas of strength, growth areas, and set specific and actionable goals. The success of resident dashboards is reliant on resident buy-in and creating a culture of psychological safety through thoughtful implementation, coaching, and regular feedback. 

Conclusion

Personalized clinical dashboards can play a crucial role in programmatic assessment within CBME, helping EM residents focus their efforts as they advance and refine their skills during training.