Quality and Health Equity Dashboards for Internal Medicine Residents: Interactive Displays to Promote Systems-Based Practice and Practice-Based Learning and Improvement

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Quality measures help identify gaps and disparities in care delivery and prioritize opportunities to improve health. Calls to enhance Systems-Based Practice and Practice-Based Learning and Improvement competencies for residency training cite the need for quality measures for trainees as central to this effort. The authors sought to demonstrate the feasibility of creating a residency program data visualization dashboard to examine individual and program quality measures for an internal medicine residency program within Kaiser Permanente Northern California. METHODS: An interactive display was developed to allow for easy visualization of quality and operational measures through an iterative design process. The dashboard displays data for individual residents, residency classes (PGY1-3), and the entire program, including quality measures, systems measures, and patient diagnoses. An iterative process continues to improve the functionality and usefulness of the dashboard. RESULTS: It is feasible to create a dashboard to visualize individual and program quality measures and health equity measures for a residency program using a learner-centered approach and alignment with institutional goals through collaboration between education and operational teams. Future studies will examine the audit and feedback process, resident perceptions, and changes to patient outcomes. CONCLUSION: Use of dashboards in graduate medical education is feasible and can be used to help residents and residency programs identify gaps in quality of care.