Portfolio Use in Postgraduate Medical Education

The Study

Lim et al. (2023) conducted a scoping review of 76 studies examining portfolio use in postgraduate medical education. The review, published in Postgraduate Medical Journal, spanned literature from multiple countries and training contexts.

Key Findings

• Portfolios serve as tools for professional identity formation, not just competency documentation
• They capture micro-competencies that traditional assessments miss — the small, day-to-day demonstrations of clinical reasoning, communication, and professionalism
• Effective portfolio implementation requires mentorship and structured reflection — portfolios without guided feedback become box-ticking exercises
• Portfolio-based assessment is most effective when integrated into longitudinal training programmes rather than used as standalone snapshots

Why This Matters

For Indian medical colleges implementing CBME, this review validates the pedagogical foundation of ePortfolios. NMC’s emphasis on workplace-based assessment and longitudinal competency tracking aligns directly with the evidence that portfolios capture what traditional assessments cannot. The finding that mentorship is essential underscores the need for structured mentor-mentee workflows in any ePortfolio implementation.

References

Lim, D., Moreau, K., & Bhatt, M. (2023). Portfolios in postgraduate medical education: A scoping review. Postgraduate Medical Journal, 99(1174), 913–923. https://academic.oup.com/pmj/article/99/1174/913/7039646