Implementation Strategy for an Education Value Unit System in Emergency Medicine at The Ohio State University

Education value units (EVUs) have been deployed to help measure academic productivity and contribution to resident education across specialties, including emergency medicine. These systems can be complex. The objective of this manuscript is to describe the implementation challenges of The Ohio State University's (OSU) EVU system and the solutions used. The OSU EVU system was created by a specially convened Task Force comprising 13 members with both undergraduate and graduate medical education appointments. The Task Force used many of the same considerations as previously published systems and produced an 18-page comprehensive document that included items such as attendance at weekly resident conference, giving lectures, facilitating simulation scenarios and procedure laboratories, providing structured remediation, coaching residents, and scholarly activity. A system to track this complex system was necessary for implementation. The EVU Data Analytics Team was created to operationalize the OSU EVU system. The members met strict criteria outlined by the chair including their expertise in data collection and analytics. This team designed a Research Electronic Data Capture online form for direct data entry by faculty and provides monthly STATA-generated reports to faculty and program leadership. The implementation allows for fairness, transparency, and accountability and has been well received by the faculty members, program leadership, and departmental leadership. Further, lessons learned in the first 2 years of implementation and review of the reports allow for annual adjustment to the EVU system.