PHOTO: iSTOCKPHOTO. COM

Once a physician is registered by the College to practise medicine, we have a duty to ensure that he or she maintains competence throughout his or her career.

Supporting physicians in their lifelong learning helps Ontario doctors and ultimately, their patients.

Assessment – An Opportunity for Learning

In 2017, the College conducted 2,216 assessments, with 1,341 of these assessments being peer assessments. Our peer assessments are designed to provide Ontario physicians with meaningful feedback to validate appropriate care and show opportunities for practice improvement.

As the figures on the next page show, most physicians who are randomly chosen for a peer assessment receive a satisfactory outcome. But over the last few years, we have been working hard to ensure that the process is as meaningful as possible to physicians.

We began by asking ourselves how the assessment itself could help physicians? How could we structure the assessment to allow physicians to gain fresh insights that allow them to deliver even higher quality care?

In 2017, the College began implementing newly developed tools and resources as part of the Peer Assessment Redesign initiative. The purpose of these new resources, compiled into discipline-specific Peer and Practice Assessment Handbooks is to support an assessment program that is more relevant, transparent, discipline-specific and ensures that decision-making is validated. Currently 10 disciplines are using peer redesign tools, three more disciplines will have handbooks developed in 2018, with the remaining eleven in 2019 or 2020.

CPSO ANNUAL REPORT 2017 // page 11