ePortfolios in graduate medical education

Residency education is the period of clinical education that follows graduation from medical school, and prepares physicians for the independent practice of medicine. The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) is an organization responsible for accrediting residency education programs. The ACGME is increasingly emphasizing educational outcomes in the accreditation process. The authors will discuss the experience of GME programs using ePortfolios for both formative and summative evaluation of residents and the integration of ePortfolios as part of institutions' learning management systems. ePortfolios can be especially useful for evaluating and documenting mastery of educational outcomes such as practice-based improvement, use of scientific evidence in patient care, and professional and ethical behaviors that are difficult to evaluate using traditional assessment instruments. The authors also review the literature describing the use of ePortfolios as a tool that is both powerful and reflective, for the assessment of program outcomes by administrators and faculty.