Dr. Maureen Topps
Executive Director & CEO, Medical Council of Canada
The medical profession has seen increasing focus on continuing professional development and the extension of assessment beyond licensing requirements.
At the Medical Council of Canada (MCC), we strive for the highest level of medical care in Canada through excellence in the assessment of physicians. To achieve our vision, we’re constantly developing high-quality, evidence-based assessments spanning every stage of a physician’s career.
For physicians, maintaining and improving quality standards of care is a lifelong learning process. The essential skills of collaboration, communication, and professionalism are intrinsic to patient care but can be difficult to assess, and when underdeveloped, can be the competencies from which problems arise. That’s why we developed MCC 360, a national multi-source feedback tool that gives physicians constructive insight into their behaviour and the perceptions and experiences of the patients and professionals who they interact with on a daily basis.
That’s why we developed MCC 360, a national multi-source feedback tool that gives physicians constructive insight into their behaviour and the perceptions and experiences of the patients and professionals who they interact with on a daily basis.
While other multi-source feedback tools exist, MCC 360 stands out by providing physicians with not only quantitative survey results, but also qualitative comments in the words of patients, physician colleagues, and non-physician co-workers. A constructive, confidential report is delivered and accompanied by a coaching session with a trained physician facilitator to offer an external perspective and to guide improvements based on the individualized feedback. Users have indicated that narrative comments, especially those from patients, have been a key element leading to positive practice changes.
From health care organizations to individual practitioners, the use of MCC 360 is also meeting the continuing professional development (CPD) needs of today’s physicians. Its use is recognized by the College of Family Physicians of Canada and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada for earning assessment-level CPD credits.
Taking place entirely online and in the physician’s own practice environment, this program is just one example of how the MCC is looking beyond traditional methods of assessment to new ways to ensure that physicians have the necessary competencies to provide safe, high-quality patient care, from residency to retirement.
