David Price (Colorado Permanente Medical Group/The Permanente Federation); Robert Galbraith (National Board of Medical Examiners)

Synopsis

We describe preliminary work in developing a template practice profile applicable to primary care physicians in multiple practice settings. Such profiles can help physicians more quantitatively understand the nature of their practice as a prelude to engaging in performance improvement and more targeted CME activities.

Purpose

To describe work to derive relatively standardized practice profile templates for primary care physicians with widely variable practices.

Format

Interactive symposium.

Perspective of Presenters

Performance assessment (PA) is necessary for performance improvement (PI). One model of PA involves clinician sequential review of their practice (“what am I doing”), their performance (“how am I doing”), and areas for improvement (“how could I do better’). This requires clinical data from individual practice.

We sought to derive relatively standardized practice profile templates for primary care physicians from different practices. Data from multiple data sources were exported into a relational data base to describe physician practice at a population level. Key features were compiled into practice profiles, which were then presented to clinicians. Physician feedback was used to refine the profiles, reconciling perceived inaccuracies and attribution issues.

Key challenges have included obtaining and manipulating data from disparate sources, and gaining engagement of skeptical clinicians. Buy-in requires data accuracy/timeliness; physician engagement throughout the process; actionable, easily-understood performance data, and appropriate comparator data.

Practice profiles could inform areas for PI, and highlight areas of additional knowledge need, helping physicians target their CME activities. Alignment with Maintenance of Certification/Competence could incent physicians to participate in iterative PA/PI activities.

Significance to CME/participants

CME providers can work with local data resources to develop and populate practice profiles, help physicians identify learning activities germane to their gaps, address gaps of the target audience in their CME activities, and provide CME credit for PA-PI activities.

Declaration

None for either presenter/author.