South Africa — Family Medicine e-Portfolio
Dy Director, Centre for Digital Resources, Education and Medical Informatics, Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth (Deemed to be University)
National adoption of e-portfolio for Family Medicine training after successful 28-registrar pilot in Western Cape.
Institution Profile
- Country: South Africa
- Specialty: Family Medicine
- Scale: Started with 28 registrars in Western Cape, now national
- Body: South African Academy of Family Physicians
Challenge
Family Medicine training in South Africa relied on paper-based portfolio assessment with poor feedback alignment between trainers and trainees, and assessments often based on hearsay rather than documented evidence.
Implementation
A quasi-experimental study (2019) compared e-portfolio assessment with traditional paper portfolios among 28 registrars. Following positive results, the South African Academy of Family Physicians adopted the approach nationally and redesigned it in 2023 to align with 22 EPAs.
Results
- Significantly better feedback alignment between trainers and trainees
- Reduced reliance on hearsay-based assessment
- National adoption by the Academy of Family Physicians
- Redesigned for 22 EPAs in 2023
Lessons Learned
- Pilot → evidence → national scale is a proven pathway
- EPA alignment makes the portfolio assessment more structured and defensible
- Feedback quality improves when evidence is documented rather than recalled from memory
References
Pon, G., et al. (2019). BMC Medical Education, 19, 251. https://bmcmededuc.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12909-019-1692-x
Dy Director, Centre for Digital Resources, Education and Medical Informatics, Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth (Deemed to be University)
Published 30 March 2026