To effectively translate genetic advances into practice, engagement of primary care providers (PCPs) is essential. Using a qualitative, phenomenological methodology, we analyzed key informant interviews and focus groups designed to explore perspectives of urban and rural PCPs. PCPs endorsed a responsibility to integrate genetics into their practices and expected advances in genetic medicine to expand. However, PCPs reported limited knowledge and difficulties accessing resources, experts, and continuing education. Rural practitioners' additional concerns included cost, distance, and poor patient engagement. PCPs' perspectives are crucial to develop relevant educational and systems-based interventions to further expand genetic medicine in primary care.

Construct: Competence Based Medical Education (CBME) is designed to use workplace-based assessment (WBA) tools to provide observed assessment and feedback on resident competence. Moreover, WBAs are expected to provide evidence beyond that of more traditional mid- or end-of-rotation assessments [e.g., In Training Evaluation Records (ITERs)]. In this study we investigate competence in General Internal Medicine (GIM), by contrasting WBA and ITER assessment tools.Background: WBAs are hypothesized to improve and differentiate written and numerical feedback to support the development and documentation of competence. In this study we investigate residents’ and faculty members’ perceptions of WBA validity, usability, and reliability and the extent to which WBAs differentiate residents’ performance when compared to ITERs.   Approach: We used a mixed methods approach over a three-year period, including perspectives gathered from focus groups, interviews, along with numerical and narrative comparisons between WBA and ITERs in one GIM program.Results: Residents indicated that the narrative component of feedback was more constructive and effective than numerical scores. They perceived the focus on specific workplace-based feedback was more effective than ITERs. However, quantitative analysis showed that overall rates of actionable feedback, including both ITERs and WBAs, were low (26%), with only 9% providing an improvement strategy. The provision of quality feedback was not statistically significantly different between tools; although WBAs provided more actionable feedback, ITERs provided more strategies. Statistical analyses showed that more than half of all assessments came from 11 core faculty.Conclusions: Participants in this study viewed narrative, actionable and specific feedback as essential, and an overall preference was found for written feedback over numerical assessments. However, quantitative analyses showed that specific actionable feedback was rarely documented, despite qualitative emphasis from both groups of its importance for developing competency. Neither formative WBAs or summative ITERs clearly provided better feedback, and both may still have a role in overall resident evaluation. Participant views differed in roles and responsibilities, with residents stating that faculty should be responsible for initiating assessments and vice-versa. These results reveal a disconnect between resident and faculty perceptions and practice around giving feedback and emphasize opportunities for programs adopting and implementing CBME to address how best to support residents and frontline clinical teachers.

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The use of quantitative intercoder reliability measures in the analysis of qualitative research data has often generated acrimonious debates among researchers who view quantitative and qualitative research methodologies as incompatible due to their unique ontological and epistemological traditions. While these measures are invaluable in many contexts, critics point out that the use of such measures in qualitative analysis represents an attempt to import standards derived for positivist research. Guided by extant research and our experience in qualitative research, we argue that it is possible to develop a qualitative-based measure of intercoder reliability that is compatible with the interpretivist epistemological paradigm of qualitative research. We present eight qualitative research process-based guidelines for evaluating and reporting intercoder reliability in qualitative research and anticipate that these recommendations will particularly guide beginning researchers in the coding and analysis processes of qualitative data analysis.