On Track: a database for evaluating the outpatient clinical experience of internal medicine residency training

Residents in internal medicine training programs spend an increasing amount of time in the outpatient setting, creating the potential for substantial variability in educational experiences among residents. We developed a data management system (On Track) that combines information on clinical experiences collected from an electronic medical record (EMR) and handheld personal data assistants (PDA). This information is translated into easily interpretable graphics and reports that provide insight into the overall residency curriculum as well as the experiences of individual residents.