title: Commentary: the role of appraisal and multisource feedback in the UK General Medical Council's new revalidation system.
abstract: Beginning in December 2012, all UK doctors will be required to complete a periodic revalidation process conducted by the General Medical Council (GMC) to retain their licence to practise medicine. Regular appraisals, based on the GMC's core guidance for doctors, will be used by responsible officers to evaluate a doctor's practice based on six types of supporting information. Feedback from patients and colleagues, referred to as multisource feedback (MSF), is one element of supporting information that doctors will present at appraisal to support their revalidation.This commentary by the Chair of the GMC expands on the research in this issue by Wright and colleagues to provide an overview of the history of revalidation in the United Kingdom, discuss the role of appraisal in revalidation, and examine the need for and value of MSF in this process. The author highlights the support that the GMC has received from UK patient organizations and ends by focusing on the benefits of revalidation and the expectations for its development in the future.
authors.affiliation: General Medical Council, London, United Kingdom. Rubin@nottingham.ac.uk
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Rubin
mesh_terms: D002983:Clinical Competence; D004650:Employee Performance Appraisal / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010820:Physicians / Q000592:standards*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires