Interim Membership by Assessment of
Performance (iMAP)
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.
iMAP is designed to evaluate the performance of individual GPs
and is therefore more 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 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
the menu bar 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 will be
able to download from the RCGP website when iMAP goes live. On
completion, the Word document is submitted electronically 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 straight forward 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’ paragraph 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 was
because the candidate followed an evidence base 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 about undertaking iMAP from the vice-chair of
iMAP, Dr Alex Watson.
Link to iMAP
Video (48 seconds)