Medical Student Evaluation Performance (MSPE) Policy Statement

The Medical Student Performance Evaluation (MSPE) is a document written by a medical school officer to provide an assessment of a student’s academic performance and professional attributes in medical school. Graduate medical education program directors use this document as a component of their evaluation of candidates during the residency application process.

Purpose of Policy

This policy was developed in compliance with LCME Standard 11: elements 11.4 and 11.6.

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.

1. Student Access to Educational Records:

A medical school has policies and procedures in place that permit a medical student to review and to challenge his or her educational records, including the Medical Student Performance Evaluation, if he or she considers the information contained therein to be inaccurate, misleading, or inappropriate.

Procedure

1. Development of the MSPE is the responsibility of the Office of the Dean of Medicine. The Associate Dean for Student Affairs (ADSA) is the individual responsible for authoring the document.
2. Ponce Health Sciences University-School of Medicine (PHSU-SOM) will follow the structure for the MSPE described in the AAMC publication, “Recommendations for Revising the Medical Student Performance Evaluation (MSPE)”.
3. During their third year of medical school and no later than summer before their senior year each student is scheduled for an individual meeting with the ADSA.
4. Beginning in the month of May before the student’s senior year, the ADSA begins to prepare an initial MSPE draft for each graduating student that includes identifying information, and available information of the student’s academic history, and clerkship evaluation summaries.
5. Each student will receive an MSPE Worksheet with instructions to provide information about undergraduate education, personal preference of addressing their name, and noteworthy characteristics.
6. Based on the documents provided and discussion during the MSPE interview, the ADSA will develop the final version of the MSPE, including final information of the students’ academic records and clinical rotation evaluations.
7. After the class rank is determined in August by the Registrar’s Office, the ADSA will add this information to the MSPE.
8. Each student will have the opportunity to review the final version of the MSPE for errors before the ADSA signs the document.
9. Students will be required to submit a written release before the ADSA uploads the document to the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS) system. If, after reviewing the MSPE and meeting the ADSA, a student is not satisfied with the final version of his MSPE, he may ask the Associate Dean of Medical Education or the Dean of Medicine to review the document and write the final version.
10. A student may need a copy of the MSPE to apply to a residency program that has decided to process its applications outside of the ERAS system. In this case, a copy of the MSPE will be printed and sent by regular mail to the residency program.
11. If a student wants to have a copy of his or her MSPE, a printed copy of the document will be provided to the student.
12. In the event that either the student or the ADSA believes there is a conflict of interest in the development of the MSPE, the Associate Dean for Medical Education or the Dean of Medicine will be the author of the MSPE.
13. A copy of the MSPE will become part of the Academic Record of the student upon graduation from PHSU.
14. A graduate of PHSU-SOM may request their MSPE if he or she needs to apply to a residency program for whatever reason after graduation. In that case updates will be made to the MSPE in order to include grades in medical school that were not yet available at the time of writing the original MSPE.