Assessing Adult Medicine Specialists Using Multisource Feedback: A Longitudinal Study

Abstract

The Physician Achievement Review is a multisource feedback program of practicing physicians that intends to assess a wide range of professional competencies. This longitudinal study focused on the reliability and validity of the PAR assessment in a large sample of adult medicine specialists (n = 404).
 Scores on all surveys were high and negatively skewed. All surveys had high internal consistency reliability and moderate generalizability. The three to four factor solutions proposed at Iteration 1 provided for moderate model fit using confirmatory factor analysis at Iteration 2. Scores increased over time, but the effect sizes were small to moderate. There was little or no correlation between self-assessment and medical colleagues on corresponding attributes.
 Future research should focus on decreasing score inflation, improving the internal structure of the surveys, and understanding factors that influence score improvements over time.