We conduct studies on the effectiveness of medical education and the tools used for measuring success.

The Jefferson Longitudinal Study of Medical Education is the most comprehensive, extensive and uninterrupted longitudinal database of its kind maintained in one medical college. It was implemented in 1970 with the intention to track all Thomas Jefferson University students throughout their medical education and professional careers. Data was collected retrospectively for those who matriculated between 1964 and 1970 and prospectively from 1971 to date. It now includes data for 11,133 individuals from 49 medical college classes.

The database includes demographics, personal qualities, performance measures in medical college, board scores, responses to matriculation and graduation questionnaires, program directors' ratings of clinical competence in residency and career follow-up surveys. The Longitudinal Study is routinely updated for all graduates using data from local sources as well as the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), American Medical Association (AMA) and American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS). Follow-up data also includes career outcomes from the AMA’s national data file, faculty appointments from the AAMC, board certification from the ABMS and periodic alumni surveys. Important statistics retrieved from the Longitudinal Study database on demographics, performance on licensing examinations, geographic location, specialty, evaluations of clinical competence in residency and perceptions of students and graduates on medical education at Thomas Jefferson University are routinely prepared for the Sidney Kimmel Medical College’s annual report.

The Longitudinal Study serves as a unique tool for institutional research and academic management of the outcomes assessment requirements of accrediting bodies, including the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) for the medical college, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) for residency programs and the Middle States Commission on Higher Education for the University. The most recent LCME accreditation review observed that:

“The Longitudinal Study continues to represent a unique information resource that serves as an invaluable tool for evaluation of educational program effectiveness. The Longitudinal Study enables the Center to provide the medical College with vital information about the intermediate and long-term outcomes of the curriculum.”   

A total of 185 studies using information from the Longitudinal Study have been published in peer-reviewed journals. Recent studies include:

• Peer Nomination, Performance and Medical Students' Personal Qualities
  In collaboration with the Office of Student Affairs, we examined the relationships between peer nomination, performance in medical college and on licensing examination, personality profiles and empathy in a study published in Academic Medicine.
• Psychometrics of the Scale of Attitudes Toward Physician-Pharmacist Collaboration. We developed a new instrument that measurers attitudes toward physician-pharmacist collaboration and, in this study, we examined its psychometrics among medical students. Results were published in Medical Teacher.
• Psychostimulant Drug Abuse and Personality in Medical Students
  Two Year-4 medical students who were interested in studying the prevalence of psycho-stimulant drug abuse in medical students and their personality profiles were assisted by the Center research staff to correlate the incidents of drug abuse with measures of personality maintained in the longitudinal database. This study will be published in Medical Teacher.

The Jefferson Scale of Empathy (JSE) was developed by researchers at the Center for Research in Medical Education and Health Care at Sidney Kimmel Medical College to measure empathy in physicians and health professionals (HP version) and medical students (S-version). A version of the scale for health professional students (HP Student version) is now available.

It has been translated into 49 languages and is being used by researchers and educators worldwide. This scale has enjoyed broad national and international attention. As of this date, we have received over 850 requests (375 from outside the U.S.) for permission to use the scale. Center faculty and colleagues at Jefferson have published 41 articles about their research findings in professional peer-reviewed journals, and our list of publications by other national and international researchers include over 70 publications in which the JSE was used.

Learn more about our research and obtaining the JSE.

With funding from the National Board of Medical Examiners’ Edward J. Stemmler, MD Medical Education Research Fund, Center re­searchers investigated the predictors and out­comes of physicians' lifelong learning based on a national survey of 3,195 Thomas Jefferson University graduates between 1975 and 2000. Major findings sum­marized, in “Measurement and correlates of physician lifelong learning,” were published Academic Medicine. A new version of the scale was developed by a group of medical education re­searchers at the Virginia Commonwealth University Medical College led by Drs. Paul Mazmanian and Angela Wetzel who worked with the Center to adapt the Jefferson Scale of Physician Lifelong Learning for administration to medical students. The study was presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association of American Medical Colleges and published in Academic Medicine. 

Two book chapters on physician lifelong learning were also written. One appeared in the Handbook of Lifelong Learning Development (Edited by Margaret Caltone, Nova Science Publishers, 2010, Chapter2, pp. 37-78), and the other was included in a monograph published in 2012 by NOVA Science Publishers entitled “Continuing Professional Development and Lifelong Learning: Issues, Impacts, and Outcomes” edited by Drs. Greg Neimeyer and Jennifer Taylor.