title: The Research on Medical Education Outcomes (ROMEO) Registry: Addressing Ethical and Practical Challenges of Using "Bigger," Longitudinal Educational Data.
abstract: Efforts to evaluate and optimize the effectiveness of medical education have been limited by the difficulty of designing medical education research. Longitudinal, epidemiological views of educational outcomes can help overcome limitations, but these approaches require "bigger data"-more learners, sources, and time points. The rich data institutions collect on students and residents can be mined, however, ethical and practical barriers to using these data must first be overcome.
  
  
  
  In 2008, the authors established the Research on Medical Education Outcomes (ROMEO) Registry, an educational data registry modeled after patient registries. New York University School of Medicine students, residents, and fellows provide consent for routinely collected educational, performance, quality improvement, and clinical practice data to be compiled into a deidentified, longitudinal database. As of January 2015, this registry included 1,225 residents and fellows across 12 programs (71% consent rate) and 841 medical students (86% consent rate). Procedures ensuring voluntary informed consent are essential to ethical enrollment and data use. Substantial resources are required to provide access to and manage the data.
  
  
  
  The registry supports educational scholarship. Seventy-two studies using registry data have been presented or published. These focus on evaluating the curriculum, quality of care, and measurement quality and on assessing needs, competencies, skills development, transfer of skills to practice, remediation patterns, and links between education and patient outcomes.
  
  
  
  The authors are working to integrate assessment of relevant outcomes into the curriculum, maximize both the quantity and quality of the data, and expand the registry across institutions.
authors.affiliation: C. Gillespie is assistant professor, Department of Medicine, and director, Division of Educational Quality, New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York. S. Zabar is professor, Department of Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York. L. Altshuler is assistant professor, Department of Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York. J. Fox is research coordinator, Department of Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York. M. Pusic is assistant professor, Department of Emergency Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York. J. Xu is ontology manager, NYU Health Sciences Library, New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York. A. Kalet is professor, Departments of Medicine and Surgery, New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York.
authors.forename: Colleen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gillespie
authors.forename: Sondra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zabar
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Altshuler
authors.forename: Jaclyn
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fox
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pusic
authors.forename: Junchuan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Adina
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kalet
mesh_terms: D022126:Access to Information / Q000941:ethics; D002983:Clinical Competence; D003479:Curriculum / Q000592:standards; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval / Q000941:ethics / Q000379:methods; D007396:Internship and Residency / Q000592:standards*; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D009518:New York; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D058996:Quality Improvement; D012042:Registries / Q000941:ethics* / Q000592:standards*