Description: In February 2022, the American Board of Surgery (ABS) announced the move to competency-based assessment of surgical trainees with the introduction of the ABS Entrustable Professional Activities (EPA) Project for general surgery residents. This represented the largest scale shift in surgical residency assessment in our lifetime. EPAs were launched in July 2023.
In partnership with its marketing firm, the ABS designed research to understand attitudes towards EPAs as a means of competency-based medical education for general surgery residency programs. ABS sought to identify messaging and positioning opportunities to effectively communicate the EPA concept to program directors, faculty, and residents.
Through one-on-one interviews and focus groups, we engaged representatives from many stakeholder groups including representatives from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), the Association of Program Directors in Surgery, the Association of Residency Administrators, the ABMS, the American College of Surgeons, the Association for Surgical Education, the Fellowship Council, Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, and the Society of Surgical Chairs. We interviewed medical students, residents, fellows, program directors, and faculty members.
Many participants mentioned the need for a multi-modality methodology in both communication methods/tools and training materials. In other words, no one solution would get the job done. This perspective reflects best practices in marketing communications. Content needs to be available to constituents in the manner that best works within the context of their daily life and match their information consumption habits. In our presentation, we will share the story of the development of this collaborative content marketing initiative.
Learning Objectives:
Initiate a research program/assessment as a collaboration strategy to engage stakeholders, build consensus, build momentum, and access important insights that can be employed in the communications program.
Accelerate the adoption of competency-based education and assessment using a multi-modal communications strategy and by designing a program that fits into the life of the target audience.
Use innovative content marketing strategies to efficiently develop large volumes of varied content that can be used over the length of a marketing campaign.
