MedBiquitous Accelerated Standards
Development Project Plan:
Medical Education Metrics 2.0
July 24, 2012
1
Table of Contents
Introduction .............................................................................................................................................. 3
Overview of MedBiquitous Standards Development Process .................................................................. 3
Objectives ................................................................................................................................................. 6
Timeline..................................................................................................................................................... 6
Description of Tasks .................................................................................................................................. 6
1. Develop Project Proposal (7/9/2012 – 7/20/2012) .......................................................................... 6
2. Develop Project Plan (7/9/2012 – 7/13/2012) ................................................................................. 7
3. Announce Project (7/20/2012 – 8/3/2012) ...................................................................................... 7
4. Expand Working Group (7/20/2012 – 8/3/2012) ............................................................................. 7
5. Convene Working Group (8/3/2012 – 8/10/2012) ........................................................................... 7
6. Develop Use Cases (8/10/2012 –8/31/2012).................................................................................... 8
7. Data Analysis (8/31/2012 – 10/12/2012) ......................................................................................... 8
8. Specification Development (10/12/2012 – 12/7/2012) ................................................................... 8
9. Implementation Support (12/7/2012 – 1/4/2013) ........................................................................... 8
Schedule of Deliverables ........................................................................................................................... 9
Continuance of Work ................................................................................................................................ 9
2
Introduction
Founded by Johns Hopkins Medicine and leading professional medical societies, MedBiquitous is a notfor-profit, international group of professional medical and healthcare associations, universities,
commercial, and governmental organizations dedicated to advancing healthcare education through
technology standards that promote professional competence, collaboration, and better patient care.
MedBiquitous is accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) to develop information
technology standards for healthcare education and competence assessment.
The REMS Program Agreement (RPA) Program Companies (RPC) wish to accelerate a revision of the
ANSI/MEDBIQ ME.10.1-2009, Medical Education Metrics standard (MEMS) designed to support analysis
of the impact of extended-release long-acting Opioid Analgesics REMS (ER/LA REMS)-related CE
activities. MedBiquitous serves as an independent contractor on this project developing a technical
specification on an accelerated timeline.
The project plan (this document) serves to inform the project team about the major tasks of the MEMS
project, its context within the broader standards development process, and the roles and
responsibilities of each project team member. The RPC, through their agent Campbell Alliance, must sign
off on the project plan to indicate their acceptance of the work, process, and responsibilities described.
The RPC participants are welcome to request changes to the project plan before sign off.
Overview of MedBiquitous Standards Development Process
The MedBiquitous standards development process is described in detail in the MedBiquitous Standards
Program operating Procedures
(http://www.medbiq.org/std_specs/devprocess/MedBiquitousANSIProcess.pdf) The following
flowcharts provide an overview of the process. The accelerated standards development project does not
address submission of the specification to the standards committee or any steps to be taken thereafter.
It focuses on the initiation of the standards development project and the accelerated development of a
draft specification for implementation and testing.
3
MedBiquitous member
organization submits
proposal on MedBiquitous
Standards
Recommendation form
Executive Committee
evaluates proposal and
decides whether to take on
project as an American
National Standard (ANS).
Follow standards
development process for
non-ANSI standards or reject
proposal
ANS Standard
Development
Project?
No
Yes
Executive Committee
transmits proposal to ANSI
using PINS form
ANSI publishes in
Standards Action
Executive Committee works
with commenter and
stakeholders to address
any comments received
from ANSI process
Public provides comments
or objections
Executive Director assigns
standards development
project to Standards
Committee and appropriate
Working Group
MedBiquitous Standards Development Process: Standards Project Initiation
4
Working Group prepares
draft standard and presents
it to Standards Committee
for comment
Standards Committee
evaluates official draft
standard
Standards
Committee
approves
standard?
Standards Committee
reviews draft standard and
provides comments to
Working Group
No
Working Group resolves
conflict, incorporates
changes, and produces or
modifies official draft
standard
Yes
Working Group resolves
conflict and revises draft
standard if necessary
Executive Director forwards
candidate standard to ANSI
using BSR9 form
Standards Committee Chair
presents draft standard to
Executive Director
Executive Committee
determines next steps based
on ANSI comments
ANSI approves
standard?
No
Yes
Executive Director submits
BSR-8 form to initiate public
review and comment
Executive Director
publishes standard
Working Group resolves
conflict and incorporates
changes if necessary
MedBiquitous Standards Development Process: Technical Development and Finalization
The project team will submit a proposal to the MedBiquitous Executive Committee for approval. If
approved, the project is announced to the ANSI standards community. The Executive Committee works
to address any comments raised as a result of the announcement.
The bulk of development will occur within a MedBiquitous Working Group. The Working Groups bring
together stakeholders from a diverse set of materially affected parties. Each participant agrees to
contribute intellectual property to the development of open technical standards. MedBiquitous staff
5
provide technical and administrative support to the working group. Working group members provide
the subject matter expertise essential to the development of the technical specification. Ultimately, the
specification is submitted to the MedBiquitous Standards Committee for review and balloting as an ANSI
standard. The working group supports the work of the Standards Committee by providing
recommendations on any comments or objections raised.
Objectives
The objectives of the project are as follows:


Revise the MEMS technical specification to support ER/LA REMS educational outcomes data for
the health professions.
Provide assistance to the accrediting bodies and the RPC in implementing the MEMS technical
specifications.
Timeline
The project will use the following accelerated standards development timeline.
Q3 12
ID
Task Name
Start
Finish
Q4 12
Duration
Jul
1
Develop project proposal
07/09/2012
07/20/2012
2w
2
Develop project plan
07/09/2012
07/13/2012
1w
3
Announce project
07/20/2012
08/03/2012
2.2w
4
Expand working group
07/20/2012
08/03/2012
2.2w
5
Convene working group
08/03/2012
08/10/2012
1.2w
6
Develop use cases
08/10/2012
08/31/2012
3.2w
7
Data Analysis
08/31/2012
10/12/2012
6.2w
8
Specification Development
10/12/2012
12/07/2012
8.2w
9
Implementation support
12/07/2012
01/04/2013
4.2w
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Deadlines for specific deliverables are defined in the Schedule of Deliverables.
Description of Tasks
1. Develop Project Proposal (7/9/2012 – 7/20/2012)
The project proposal defines the mission and provides the context for the standards development
project. MedBiquitous staff will draft a project proposal for the team’s review. Team members will
provide feedback on the proposal and sign off on the proposal when it is ready for submission to the
MedBiquitous Executive Committee. The Executive Committee considers the proposal. If the proposal is
approved, it will be posted on the MedBiquitous website and provided to the Metrics Working Group,
which would undertake the work.
6
2. Develop Project Plan (7/9/2012 – 7/13/2012)
The project plan (this document) serves to inform the project team about the major tasks of the project,
its context within the broader standards development process, and the roles and responsibilities of each
project team member. Sponsors must sign off on the project plan to indicate their acceptance of the
work, process, and responsibilities described. Sponsors are welcome to request changes to the project
plan before sign off.
3. Announce Project (7/20/2012 – 8/3/2012)
Once the proposal is approved, MedBiquitous announces the standards development activity to the
ANSI community and the MedBiquitous community. MedBiquitous staff will announce the formation of
a new working group via the MedBiquitous newsletter and MedBiquitous website. The announcement
will invite MedBiquitous member organizations to appoint representatives to the working group.
MedBiquitous will also issue a formal announcement to ANSI for publication in Standards Action, which
lists all new, modified and withdrawn ANSI standards projects.
4. Expand Working Group (7/20/2012 – 8/3/2012)
The success of any standards development project is dependent upon the active participation of subject
matter experts in defining business and technical requirements for the data or activity. Such
requirements are defined within the context of a MedBiquitous Working Group.
MedBiquitous members may appoint representatives to relevant working groups. Each Working Group
consists of a chair or two co-chairs, one or more consortium staff and/or Invited Experts, and members
of the Consortium. MedBiquitous staff works with the chair(s) to develop meeting agendas and set the
course for the Working Group. The Working Group provides feedback, evaluation, and when useful or
necessary, research throughout the standards development process.
The RPC will identify experts to serve as their representatives on the working group. MedBiquitous will
work with the RPC to identify accrediting bodies and other organizations or individuals whose input is
desired. MedBiquitous will contact these individuals and organizations and invite them to become
Invited Experts in the Metrics Working Group. Invited experts are individuals with essential expertise
from organizations that are not members of MedBiquitous. A legal agreement between MedBiquitous
and the Invited Expert is necessary to ensure that ideas contributed to the standards development
process may be made available free of any intellectual property constraints. MedBiquitous makes all of
its work available under the MedBiquitous XML Public License
(http://www.medbiq.org/about_us/faq/medbiq_xml_publiclicense.html) .
In addition to RPC-identified experts and representatives, non-members identified by MedBiquitous as
individuals with essential expertise may participate in the Working Group.
5. Convene Working Group (8/3/2012 – 8/10/2012)
The working group will have an initial kickoff call and twice monthly calls at a regular day and time
thereafter. The working group will communicate via listserv and wiki between calls. MedBiquitous staff
will draft all technical documents for the working group to review. It is anticipated that working group
participation will generally require 4 hours per month or less. The time commitment may increase
7
during the implementation phase of the project should working group members also be early
implementers.
The working group’s schedule may change if group members are unavailable during a regularly
scheduled call.
6. Develop Use Cases (8/10/2012 –8/31/2012)
A use case is a scenario or set of scenarios describing a user interacting with a system to achieve a
specific goal. The development of use cases is an important component of the standards development
process because it allows the working group to formally define the goals of the standard and how it will
be used, and then prioritize which of those use cases are most important to the group. The priorities
help to define the scope of the specification and provide important information about the context of
use.
The working group will provide input to the use case development process, indicating some typical
scenarios for curriculum inventory data exchange. MedBiquitous staff will formalize these scenarios into
use cases and iterate with the working group to finalize and prioritize the use cases.
7. Data Analysis (8/31/2012 – 10/12/2012)
The Working Group will gather requirements on educational outcomes data for inclusion in the
specification. The work will build upon the existing standard for Medical Education Metrics. Examples of
the desired outcomes data may be analyzed at this point. The data included in various examples will be
compared to assess areas of commonality and difference. The group will discuss issues including:




Data fields to be included
Granularity of data
Data seen as out of scope
Data fields that might benefit from having a well-defined vocabulary
Relevant vocabularies may be analyzed or drafted as part of this process.
8. Specification Development (10/12/2012 – 12/7/2012)
MedBiquitous staff will draft technical specifications and an XML schema for the Working Group to
review. Reviews will be conducted via teleconference. Working Group members will also have the
opportunity to submit feedback via email listserv or wiki. Specification development is an iterative
process and largely depends on the input and involvement of working group members. Scope may
change depending on the composition of the working group and its input.
9. Implementation Support (12/7/2012 – 1/4/2013)
MedBiquitous staff will assist accrediting bodies, RPC participants, and their vendors in adopting the
specification and assuring interoperability. MedBiquitous may also provide assistance to other
stakeholders identified by the RPC as part of an interoperability testing process. Stakeholders will assign
technical staff to implement the draft specification in the appropriate IT system(s). MedBiquitous will
convene conference calls to:
8
1) Address any questions about the specification and its implementation
2) Discuss options for transporting data
3) Discuss any other practical issues that arise
The lessons learned from this test may be incorporated into implementation guidelines developed after
completion of the project.
Schedule of Deliverables
Deliverable
Estimated Completion Date
Project Proposal
July 20, 2012
Project Plan
July 13, 2012
Use cases
August 31, 2012
Draft technical specification(s) for
implementation
December 7, 2012
Continuance of Work
An initial specification will be developed and potentially implemented by January 4, 2013, but
finalization of the specification will likely continue after completion of the project, in part through the
public review and balloting process within MedBiquitous standards development procedures. Work to
be completed after the completion of the project is likely to include:





Addressing issues raised as a result of implementation testing
Development of implementation guidelines
Public review of the specification
Balloting of the specification
Addressing comments raised through the public review and balloting processes
9