Exploring Content Relationships Among Components of a Multisource Feedback Program.

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Physician Professional Development
• Quality Improvement

Background:

• A new multisource feedback (MSF) program was developed to enhance physician quality improvement (QI).
• The program focuses on CanMEDS roles: Collaborator, Communicator, and Professional.
• It collects quantitative and qualitative data from colleagues, co-workers, and patients, supplemented by self-ratings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore how the content of MSF program components facilitates the translation of feedback into QI plans.
• To examine the relationships between different data sources within the MSF program.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of survey items, rater comments, facilitator reports, and physician action plans from 159 physicians.
• Utilized word frequency queries to identify common themes and relationships across data sources.

Main Results:

• Substantial overlap was found between high-frequency words in surveys and rater comments.
• Physician action plan goals were strongly related to respondent comments, but less so to survey items.
• Facilitator reports showed a strong connection to the content of physician action plans.

Conclusions:

• All MSF program components are interconnected and play a role in the QI process.
• The observed patterns of overlap indicate unique functions for each program component.
• The coherence across components provides evidence supporting the validity of the MSF program.