Macy Initiative in Health Communication

Research and Evaluation

The Macy Evaluation Team at UMass is headed by Judy Ockene, PhD, MEd. Other key participants include: Wendy Gammon, MA, MEd (responsible for standardized patient training and OSCEs); Jane Rogers, PhD (responsible for research and evaluation in the UMass Office of Medical Education); Kathy Mazor, EdD (Director of Research at Meyers Primary Care Institute and Macy project collaborator); Emily Ferrara, BS (Macy Project Administrator), and Mark Quirk, EdD (liaison to Faculty Development Team). The group meets regularly to plan and oversee the Evaluation and Research aspects of the Macy Initiative at UMass. Representatives of the team are also active participants on the Tri-School Evaluation Committee.

Major activities of the UMass Macy Evaluation Team include:

• Planning and administration of the Macy OSCE evaluations at UMass, as well as providing technical support to NYU and Case Western in the administration of their OSCEs
• Conducting reliability and validity analyses of OSCE data, in collaboration with the Tri-School Committee
• Technical assistance to UMass curriculum developers in design and implementation of individualized evaluations for curriculum interventions
• Development of a "paper and pencil" Physician Communication Test to assess student, resident and faculty communication competencies
• Support for design of evaluations to determine impact of faculty development on students' communication skills and on the instructors who teach the skills (Objective Structured Teaching Evaluation, OSTE, used to evaluate faculty skills in providing feedback, especially feedback on communication skills.)
• Participation in the development of the publications and presentations protocol for the Macy Initiative

For additional information about the UMass Macy Initiative's Evaluation activities, contact:

Judy Ockene, PhD, MEd, Director, Macy Research and Evaluation
Wendy Gammon, MA, MEd, Director, Standardized Patient Program
Jane Rogers, PhD, Director, Research and Evaluation, UMass Office of Medical Education Mark Quirk, EdD, Evaluation team member, and Director, Macy Faculty Development
Kathy Mazor, EdD, Director, Research and Evaluation, Office of Medical Education
Emily Ferrara, BS, Macy Project Administrator