The APPD Longitudinal Educational Assessment Research Network's First Decade.

ABSTRACT: In 2009, the Association of Pediatric Program Directors (APPD) Longitudinal Educational Assessment Research Network (LEARN), a national educational research network, was formed. We report on evaluation of the network after 10 years of operation by reviewing program context, input, processes, and products to measure its progress in performing educational research that advances training of future pediatricians. Historical changes in medical education shaped the initial development of the network. APPD LEARN now includes 74% (148 of 201) of US Pediatric residency programs and has recently incorporated a network of Pediatric subspecialty fellowship programs. At the time of this evaluation, APPD LEARN had approved 19 member-initiated studies and 14 interorganizational studies, resulting in 23 peer-reviewed publications, numerous presentations, and 7 archived sharable data sets. Most publications focused on how and when interventions work rather than whether they work, had high scores for reporting rigor, and included organizational and objective performance outcomes. Member program representatives had positive perceptions of APPD LEARN's success, with most highly valuing participation in research that impacts training, access to expertise, and the ability to make authorship contributions for presentations and publication. Areas for development and improvement identified in the evaluation include adopting a formal research prioritization process, infrastructure changes to support educational research that includes patient data, and expanding educational outreach within and outside the network. APPD LEARN and similar networks contribute to high-rigor research in pediatric education that can lead to improvements in training and thereby the health care of children.

National Pediatric Experience With Virtual Interviews: Lessons Learned and Future Recommendations.

The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic significantly impacted undergraduate and graduate medical education and created challenges that prevented a traditional approach to residency and fellowship recruitment and interviews. Early in the pandemic, the pediatric education community came together to support applicants and training programs and to foster an equitable recruitment process. We describe many of our community's innovations, including the use of virtual cafés to educate programs and highlight best practices for virtual recruitment and the use of regional webinars to highlight residency programs and provide information to applicants. Surveys of applicants and programs suggest that the virtual interview process worked well overall, with applicants and programs saving both time and money and programs maintaining a high rate of filling their positions. On the basis of this experience, we highlight the strengths and weaknesses of 3 potential models for future interview seasons. We close with a series of questions that need further investigation to create an effective and equitable recruitment process for the future.

Council of Pediatric Subspecialties (CoPS): the first five years.

The Council of Pediatric Subspecialties (CoPS) was founded in September 2006 largely due to concerns about the nonuniformity of the fellowship application process. Working with the pediatric subspecialty community, CoPS has been successful in promoting a uniform process with many more pediatric fellowship programs now using a matching program and the Electronic Residency Application Service. More important, the organization has created a bidirectional network of communication among the pediatric subspecialties and has used this to accomplish a great deal more than improving the entry of residents into subspecialty training. CoPS has provided a united voice for the subspecialties in response to the Institute of Medicine's Duty Hours report, participated in the development of educational conferences geared toward the subspecialist, promoted careers in the subspecialties, and worked with other pediatric organizations to advocate for improved health care for children. This article highlights CoPS' many achievements and describes the methods it used to accomplish them, illustrating how pediatric subspecialists can develop a communication network and use this to work together to achieve common goals.