Medical Student Data Requests

Policy 1040.10

Policy Statement

The purpose of this policy is to manage requests for medical student educational data in a manner that protects learner confidentiality and adheres to directives regarding education data.

The Robert Larner, M.D. College of Medicine wishes to ensure confidentiality standards and respect the privacy of all learners in accordance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA) and in compliance with the University of Vermont FERPA Rights Disclosure Policy.

Regardless of its format, and in compliance with the requirements of this policy, current medical students may only be granted access to datasets that do not include any identifiable peer learner demographic and/or performance data.

Policy Elaboration

Definitions

For the purpose of educational data requests, data are classified into the following categories:

Learner Demographics: Includes descriptive data about learners (e.g., year in program, graduation data, age, Underrepresented Minority/Underrepresented in Medicine (URM/UIM) status, undergraduate institutions, etc.)

Learner Performance: Includes learner academic achievement prior to, during, and post training (e.g., admission data, internal and external examination scores, assessment of learner performance, learners’ summative portfolios, residency/fellowship director’s rating of intern performance.)

Program Performance: Data on satisfaction with the curriculum, programs, and faculty/non-faculty teaching (e.g., program, course, and faculty evaluations, Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Graduation Questionnaire data, Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) annual surveys) and data from surveys and research conducted by LCOM faculty and learners that are not a part of routine program evaluation.

This policy pertains to data in the learner demographics and learner performance categories collected and stored by the Office of Medical Education (OME). It does not pertain to any data collected by students that are voluntarily provided by students.

Procedures

Due to the importance of maintaining confidentiality, current medical students may only be granted access to datasets that do not include any identifiable peer learner demographic and/or performance data.

If students wish to perform research with potentially identifiable learner demographic and/or performance data, they must partner with a faculty mentor. The faculty member will be the only one approved to work with the raw dataset, and only aggregate results may be shared with the student. Residents are not able to serve in the role as faculty member for research regarding learner demographic or performance data.

In rare instances, learner demographic and/or performance data requested by the student may contain an extremely low risk of a confidentiality breach. In such cases, the Student Request Review Committee will review the request. Any data requests from students that are deemed potentially low risk will be reviewed by the Committee. If the Review Committee confirms that the risk of a confidentiality breach is minimal, they may approve the release of a de-identified dataset with learner demographic and/or performance data to the student.

Special considerations may apply for students officially hired by OME for summer or temporary work.

All policies and procedures must be followed, including but not limited to Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval, familiarity with FERPA policy, applying for access to the data (which may be approved or denied), and if approved, signing a Medical Education Data Use Memorandum of Understanding (MOU.)

Applicability of the Policy

All Medical Students

Related Larner College of Medicine Policies

Not Applicable

Related University of Vermont Policies

Not applicable

Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) Standard(s)

  • 3.2 Community of Scholars/Research Opportunities
  • 7.3 Scientific Method/Clinical/Translational Research

History

  • 12/18/2018 Policy Adopted/Affirmed [Medical Curriculum Committee]
  • 8/20/2019 Policy Revised [Medical Curriculum Committee]
  • 12/17/2019 Hyperlinks updated (UVM migration) [Medical Curriculum Committee]
  • 6/16/2020 Policy Edited [Medical Curriculum Committee]
  • 7/19/2022 Policy Edited [Medical Curriculum Committee]

Policy Oversight

Assistant Dean for Medical Education (Director of Curriculum Evaluation and Assessment)

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