A Portable Pediatrics Medical Education Assessment System for the Pediatrics Milestone Project

Assessment is critically important in medical education. Designing an effective assessment system, however, is very challenging. In this thesis, we developed a portable assessment system based on the Pediatrics Milestone project for fellows and faulty members in Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC). The Pediatrics Milestone project is a joint initiative the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) and the American Board of Pediatrics to assess resident physicians. Specifically, we first made necessary modification to original assessment framework for real applications on portable devices. Then, our pediatrics medical education assessment system was implemented with cutting-edge mobile technology. iPad from Apple Inc. was chosen by the users as the assessment system platform. Xcode was used for App development. User interface and database were designed on designated integrated development environment. The implemented assessment tool is planned to be used in medical education of CCHMC. With the help of advances in portable devices and applicability of Pediatrics Milestone project, assessment feedback to the students is meaningful and the implemented assessment strategy is anticipated to improve medical education.