Interim Membership by Assessment of
Performance (iMAP)
Update January 2010
iMAP, the route to Membership of the Royal
College of General Practitioners for those who have completed GP
specialty training, has been extremely well received by established
GPs. A far greater than anticipated uptake of the programme
has been seen since its inception in September 2007. As a
result of its success and popularity, College Council has recently
agreed to extend the availability of iMAP for two further years so
that the introduction its successor assessment will coincide with
the introduction of revalidation for General Practitioners.
Further details of our plans in this regard will be available in
due course.
As a result of iMAP’s extension, a review of
the precise requirements of the portfolio is taking place. It
is anticipated that any amendments would be minor, but a revised
portfolio template and handbook, together with Candidate
Regulations, will be released in April 2010.
Candidates may continue to apply and submit
portfolios using the current documents until such time as the
update is made available. Please note that the iMAP office
will not be able to advise further information on any
amendments that may occur prior to their release.
BACKGROUND TO IMAP
Interim Membership by Assessment of Performance (iMAP) provides
an opportunity for established GPs to become members of the Royal
College of General Practitioners (RCGP). Unlike other branches of
the medical profession membership of the RCGP has not been a
prerequisite to work as a general practitioner in the UK. GPs
participating in iMAP compile a portfolio documenting their day to
day practice, and when that is accepted by assessors, they are
invited to attend an oral assessment.
iMAP is designed to evaluate the performance of individual GPs
and is accessible to GPs with a wide variety of work patterns.
iMAP is easily attainable for any GP providing a good standard
of care to their patients. Many GPs will already be doing what is
required by iMAP and they will simply need to document this
information in the format required. However, some aspects of iMAP
such as an audit might need to be carried out specifically for
iMAP. The iMAP pilot showed that most GPs could complete the iMAP
portfolio within a 3 to 6 month period of fairly concentrated
work.
All key iMAP documents and support materials can be accessed via
different sub-headings on the left hand side of this screen. Any
new developments or updates will be posted on this page.
THE STRUCTURE OF iMAP
Portfolio Assessment
The iMAP portfolio is a Word document that
candidates should download from the iMAP Portfolio
sub-heading.
Candidates may begin working on their portfolios prior to
submitting an application (all necessary documents are available on
this website – please see the tabs on the left hand side of this
screen). However, the material in a portfolio must be less
than one year old at the time it is submitted for assessment.
Portfolios cannot be submitted until the candidate’s eligibility,
based on their application, has been confirmed by the iMAP
office.
All iMAP candidates will be given an original
portfolio submission deadline of one year from the date
of receipt of their application. Please note that all
material submitted in the portfolio must be no older than one year
on the date of original portfolio submission.
On completion, the portfolio document is submitted by
email to the iMAP office. The portfolio is then independently
assessed by two iMAP assessors, who will produce a single summary
report that is sent to the candidate as feedback. If the portfolio
is of a satisfactory standard candidates will be invited to an oral
assessment. If the portfolio requires further work, the assessors
will request a re-submission, highlighting the areas requiring
further clarification by the candidate.
Please follow this link to view iMAP
criteria
Oral Assessment
Following the submission of a successful portfolio, candidates
will be invited to participate in an oral assessment. The oral
assessment consists of three parts and will last for a total of 90
minutes. Part of the oral will be based on the candidate’s
submitted portfolio work and part on the broader issues relating to
the portfolio. The oral assessments will take place at various
times of the year at the Clinical Skills Assessment (CSA) centre in
Croydon. Candidates will only be permitted one attempt of the oral
assessment.
THE WORK FOR IMAP
The iMAP portfolio should be straightforward to complete. In
essence candidates are asked to document what they did and then
explain why they did it.
Documenting ‘what was done’ is clearly defined in the
'Guidelines' and the ‘What the criterion will be assessed on’
paragraphs of the Handbook. Proformas have been included to help
candidates document all the required information. If a candidate
has not supplied sufficient information or if something is
ambiguous the portfolio will be sent back for resubmission.
Justifying ‘why something was done’ is included in the
reflective parts of the proformas but the main assessment of
candidate’s justification for a particular action is at the oral
assessment. Sometimes the justification of what was done will
be that the candidate followed an evidence based practice,
local or national guideline. Occasionally candidates will have
varied the suggested management plan of a guideline to meet the
needs of a particular patient. Candidates will need to be aware
that they have done this and provide sufficient evidence as to why.
Sometimes (quite frequently!) there are no right or wrong answers
but a decision will need to have been made. Candidates should be
able to describe the guiding framework they used to make this
decision. The oral assessment will also explore the broader issues
relating to the portfolio which will allow the candidate to
demonstrate a deeper understanding of the issues involved.
iMAP Message from Vice-chair
Follow the link below to view a
short video message from the Vice Chair of iMAP, Dr Alex Watson,
about undertaking iMAP.
Link to iMAP
Video (48 seconds)