Development of a cumulative teaching score for tracking surgeon performance in undergraduate medical education

Background: Surgeon educators are important in undergraduate medical education (UME). However, teaching activities are undervalued and under-recognized compared with research, resulting in poorer quantity and quality of surgeon teaching. The purpose of this study was to investigate teaching roles available to surgeons and the amount of effort involved. Methods: A comprehensive review of all possible roles surgeons may take in UME at our institution was assembled. Delphi committee members were asked to evaluate each teaching role on the amount of effort needed per hour. Results were analyzed using descriptive statistics, and a Cronbach alpha of 0.60 or higher was the threshold to declare consensus. Results: Twenty-five participants, including physicians, residents and medical students, completed the study. Consensus was reached on the amount of effort needed for each teaching role. These values were used to prototype a cumulative teaching score that can be used to qualitatively quantify surgeon teaching. Conclusion: Surgeon teaching is important in UME, but not tracked and thus not valued. To improve the quantity and quality of surgeon teaching in UME, we need to track, reward and recognize surgeon teaching activities. The effort score we developed to objectively and transparently qualify teaching was able to determine the relative effort needed for each teaching activity in UME at the University of Toronto. Combining the effort score and time committed to each teaching activity will produce a cumulative teaching score for each instructor.