Towards a paperless medical physics residency management system

Documentation is a required component of a residency program, but can be difficult to collect and disseminate, resulting in minimal utilization by residents and faculty. The purpose of this work is to adapt a commercially‐available Web‐based medical residency management system to improve the learning experience by efficiently distributing program information, documenting resident activities, and providing frequent monitoring and timely feedback of resident progress. To distribute program information, program requirements and rotation readings were uploaded. An educational conference calendar was created with associated files and attendance records added. To document resident progress, requirements for over 37 different clinical procedures were added, for which the resident logged the total number of procedures performed. Progress reports were created and automatically distributed. To provide feedback to the resident, an extensive electronic evaluation system was created. Results are shown for the initial 21 months of program existence, consisting of a single resident for the first 12 months and two residents for the subsequent 9 months. The system recorded that 130 documents were uploaded and 100% of required documents were downloaded by the resident. In total, 385 educational conferences and meetings were offered, of which the residents attended 95%. The second‐year and first‐year residents logged 1030 and 522 clinical procedures, respectively. The residents submitted a total of 116 status reports detailing weekly activities, 100% of which were reviewed by faculty within an average of 11.3 days. A total of 65 evaluations of the residents were submitted. The residents reviewed 100% of respective evaluations within an average of 1.5 days. We have successfully incorporated a paperless, Web‐based management system in a medical physics residency program. A robust electronic documentation system has been implemented, which has played a central role in enhancing the training experience. PACS number: 01