Correction to: Multisource feedback as part of the medical board of Australia's professional performance framework: outcomes from a preliminary study.

Following publication of the original article [1], the author reported that Fig. 4 was missing. This has now been corrected in the original article.

Multisource feedback as part of the Medical Board of Australia's Professional Performance Framework: outcomes from a preliminary study.

BACKGROUND: The recent introduction of the Professional Performance Framework by the Medical Board of Australia is intended to strengthen continuing professional development for the 100,000 or so medical practitioners in Australia. An important option within the Framework is the use of multisource feedback from patients, colleagues and self-evaluations to allow doctors to reflect on their performance and identify methods for self-improvement. The aim of this study is to explore the relationships between patient feedback, colleague feedback, and self-evaluation using the same questionnaires as used by patients and colleagues. METHODS: Feedback data for around 2000 doctors belonging to four different groups were collected through non-probability sampling from nearly 100,000 patients and 24,000 colleagues. Reliability analysis was performed using single measures intraclass coefficients, Cronbach' alpha and signal-to-noise ratios. Analysis of variance was used to identify significant differences in scores between items and sub-populations of doctors; principal component analysis involving Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) sampling adequacy and Bartlett's test for sphericity was used to reveal components of doctor performance; and correlation analysis was used for identifying convergence between sets of scores from different sources. RESULTS: Patients rated doctors highest on respect shown and lowest on reassurance provided. Colleagues rated doctors highest on trustworthiness and lowest on ability to say 'no'. With regard to self-evaluation, doctors gave themselves lower scores on the patient questionnaire and the colleague questionnaire (10 and 12%, respectively) than they received from their patients and colleagues. There were weak but positive correlations between self-scores and scores received indicating some convergence of agreement, with doctors feeling more comfortable with self-evaluation from the perspective of patients than from colleagues. CONCLUSIONS: Supplementing patient and colleague feedback with self-evaluation may help doctors confirm for themselves areas for enhanced CPD through convergence. If self-evaluation is used, the colleague questionnaire may be sufficient, since aspects of clinical competence, management, communication and leadership as well as patient care can be addressed through colleague items. Mentoring of doctors in CPD should aim to make doctors feel more comfortable about being rated by colleagues to enhance convergence between self-scores and evaluations from the perspective of colleagues.

Spatial-spectral characterization of focused spatially chirped broadband laser beams.

Proper alignment is critical to obtain the desired performance from focused spatially chirped beams, for example in simultaneous spatial and temporal focusing (SSTF). We present a simple technique for inspecting the beam paths and focusing conditions for the spectral components of a broadband beam. We spectrally resolve the light transmitted past a knife edge as it was scanned across the beam at several axial positions. The measurement yields information about spot size, M2, and the propagation paths of different frequency components. We also present calculations to illustrate the effects of defocus aberration on SSTF beams.

DC photoelectron gun parameters for ultrafast electron microscopy.

We present a characterization of the performance of an ultrashort laser pulse driven DC photoelectron gun based on the thermionic emission gun design of Togawa et al. [Togawa, K., Shintake, T., Inagaki, T., Onoe, K. & Tanaka, T. (2007). Phys Rev Spec Top-AC 10, 020703]. The gun design intrinsically provides adequate optical access and accommodates the generation of approximately 1 mm2 electron beams while contributing negligible divergent effects at the anode aperture. Both single-photon (with up to 20,000 electrons/pulse) and two-photon photoemission are observed from Ta and Cu(100) photocathodes driven by the harmonics (approximately 4 ps pulses at 261 nm and approximately 200 fs pulses at 532 nm, respectively) of a high-power femtosecond Yb:KGW laser. The results, including the dependence of the photoemission efficiency on the polarization state of the drive laser radiation, are consistent with expectations. The implications of these observations and other physical limitations for the development of a dynamic transmission electron microscope with sub-1 nm.ps space-time resolution are discussed.

High-power, femtosecond, thermal-lens-shaped Yb:KGW oscillator.

Thermal lens shaping for astigmatism compensation is extended to a high-power, diode-pumped, Yb:KGW laser by employing a gain crystal geometry designed for efficient polarized pumping. The 63MHz oscillator is soliton mode-locked with the aid of a saturable Bragg reflector to yield 250fs (347fs) pulses at an output power of 3.5W (5W). Frequency doubling of the 250fs pulses with an intrinsic efficiency >60% provides 1.65W of average green power.