I. PURPOSE
The Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) has established standards regarding the provision of Medical Student Performance Evaluation (MSPE) letters, requiring medical schools to release these to align with AAMC/ERAS (or alternate service) residency application deadlines. The LCME also requires institutions to identify the individuals primarily responsible for preparing MSPE letters, and the procedures by which students may request an alternative preparer if conflicts have been identified. New York Medical College School of Medicine (NYMC SOM) has created these procedures to ensure the timeliness and accuracy of MSPE letter preparation and release.
II. POLICY
It is the policy of the NYMC SOM that the Office of Student Affairs is responsible for the generation of the MSPE letters. Students have the right to review and challenge these letters and request alternate letter writers, as described below.
MSPE Content
The MSPE is not a letter of recommendation letter but a comprehensive letter of evaluation and summary of the student’s academic record and performance through the first three years of medical school. The MSPE is uploaded into the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS) or, depending on the specialty, an alternate application service, e.g., CentralApp. The MSPE is part of the residency application process and is released through ERAS (or alternate service) to all residency programs to which the student applies. The MSPE is intended to provide residency program directors with a summary assessment of a student’s salient medical school experiences, attributes, and academic performance in comparison to other students within the student’s medical school cohort.
The MSPE is organized based on the recommendations of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), to include six sections:
• Identifying Information
• Noteworthy Characteristics – Students are responsible for drafting the noteworthy characteristics section of the MSPE, in consultation with an advisor, as well as reviewing the final MSPE to ensure the information displayed is factually accurate.
• Academic History - This section includes information from the student’s official record.
I. Date of initial matriculation
II. Date of expected graduation
III. Explanation of any extensions, leave(s) of absence, gap(s), or break(s) in the student’s education (if applicable)
IV. Information about prior, current, or expected enrollment in, and expected graduation from dual, joint, or combined degree programs (if applicable)
V. Explanation of any requirement to repeat or remediate any coursework (if applicable)
VI. Explanation of any adverse action(s) by the medical school or parent institution (if applicable)
• Academic Progress - This section includes a statement regarding the student’s attainment of professional standards, as defined by New York Medical College, and information from the student’s summative evaluations.
I. Professional Performance: Professionalism-related concerns and violations that are referred to the Professionalism and Integrity Committee (PIC) may be included in this section of the MSPE. The PIC may make recommendations to the Dean of Students as to whether any professionalism-related concerns and/or violations reviewed by the PIC should be included in a student’s MSPE. Such recommendations will be based on criteria that may include, but are not limited to, the following.
• Severity of the professionalism-related concern(s) and/or violation(s)
• Prior, recurrent, or repeated unprofessional behavior
• Failure to remediate professionalism-related concerns and deficiencies Any inclusion of such professionalism-related concerns or violations in the MSPE is ultimately at the discretion of the Dean of Students.
• Professionalism-related commendations may also be included in this section of the
MSPE
I. Preclinical/Basic Science and Clinical Curriculum
II. Core Clinical Clerkships
• Overall grade (with comparative graph of grade distribution for student’s cohort)
• Medical knowledge grade
• Patient care grade
• Narrative evaluation of student’s performance
• Summary – A brief concluding paragraph that sums up the student’s overall performance, based upon the SOM’s evaluation system, and compares the student’s performance in medical school relative to their medical school cohort.
• Medical school information – A description and history of the medical school.
III. SCOPE
This policy applies to all medical students, the Dean of Student Affairs, the Office of Student Affairs, faculty, staff and administrators who contribute to the MSPE.
IV. DEFINITIONS
MSPE – Medical Student Performance Evaluation
V. PROCEDURES
A. MSPE Content
1. Assimilated from a variety of areas and data sources and compiled into the final version of the document.
2. The Office of Student Affairs Support staff and the Registrar will assimilate the data and content needed for the MSPE including the students’ submission of the noteworthy characteristics.
3. At the end of Year 3, the Office of Student Affairs presents information to students regarding the components of the MSPE and requests that students submit their Noteworthy Characteristics by a deadline date.
4. This information is incorporated into the Dean of Student’s draft of the MSPE.
5. Approximately two-three weeks prior to the anticipated upload date to the application service, a locked pdf copy of the MSPE is emailed to the students to review the draft of the MSPE.
6. Students can review the MSPE for factual accuracy and/or discrepancies from their academic record at two points in the MSPE process (after the first and final draft if there have been any edits).
7. MSPE’s are signed by the Dean of Students.
B. MSPE Student Review Process
1. Students are expected to review their MSPE during the designated time frame prior to the final upload of the MSPE into ERAS (or alternate application service).
2. A timeline and due date for review will be released by the OSA on an annual basis, and will provide students with no less than one (1) week to review their MSPE.
3. This review will be for factual information only, and requests for revision(s) will only be considered if there is a factual inaccuracy.
4. Requests for revisions to narrative comments from evaluations in the Clerkships will not be considered during this review.
5. Students who wish to challenge or appeal narrative comments from evaluations should follow the process and established timelines in the Grade Appeals Policy located at: https://www.nymc.edu/school-of-medicine-som/som-policies/.
C. Challenges to MSPE Content
1. Any student can challenge the content of the MSPE prior to the Office of Student Affairs uploading the final document into the ERAS residency application (or alternate application system).
2. These challenges can occur at various points in time in the student’s education as follows:
a. The narrative comments associated with all courses and clinical experiences that will be contained within a student’s MSPE are finalized by the course/clerkship director or phase director, within six weeks of course completion. Students have full, real-time access to these narrative comments through the student learning management system, LEO. Students can challenge the grades and narratives submitted by the directors if they are felt to be unfair or misrepresentative in accordance with the School of Medicine Policy on Grade and Evaluation Appeals Policy. The Directors have full authority to edit the narrative comments associated with their course.
b. Students can challenge MSPE content felt to be factually incorrect after reviewing the compiled draft MSPE sent to them prior to ERAS upload. Factual errors are corrected by the Associate Director of OSA immediately (e.g., name changes) and do not need further approval.
c. Students who have continued concerns about the content of their MSPE not resolved with these methods can discuss their concerns with one of the Deans of the Office of Student Affairs and/or the Dean of Students. The Dean of Students has full authority to edit a student’s MSPE when necessary to ensure the MSPE is a fair and accurate representation of the student’s medical school performance.
D. Requesting an Alternate MSPE Preparer
1. If for any reason, a student believes that the Dean of Students, or any other Dean of the Office of Student Affairs cannot prepare the MSPE in an unbiased manner, they may request in writing to the Dean of the SOM, that the MSPE not be completed by any Dean of the OSA.
2. The Dean of the SOM or their designee will then designate an appropriate author at the dean level, outside the Office of Student Affairs, to complete the MSPE. The Dean of the SOM is the final arbitrator and judge for student MSPE challenge(s).
E. Provision of MSPE and Release
1. NYMC SOM follows all rules and regulations set forth by the AAMC/ERAS regarding the release of the MSPE.
2. As such, NYMC SOM does not release the MSPEs directly to programs or any other individual prior to the date set by AAMC/ERAS (or alternative application service) when residency programs may begin reviewing MyERAS applications and MSPEs in the Program Director Workstation.
VI. EFFECTIVE DATE
This policy is effective immediately.
VII. POLICY MANAGEMENT
Responsible Executive: Dean, School of Medicine
Oversight Office: Office of Student Affairs, School of Medicine
VIII. RELATED LCME STANDARDS AND ELEMENTS
11.4 Provision of MSPE A medical school provides a Medical Student Performance Evaluation required for the residency application of a medical student to align with the AAMC/ERAS residency application timeline.
11.6 Student Access to Educational Records. A medical school has policies and procedures in place that permit a medical student to review and to challenge the student’s educational records, including the Medical Student Performance Evaluation, if the student considers the information contained therein to be inaccurate, misleading, or inappropriate.
