From Silos to Systems: Leveraging Visualization Tools to Map and Navigate the Complex Terrain of Health Professions Education

Rationale:
Health Professions Education (HPE) programs are diverse and founded with varied goals, missions, and pedagogical approaches. Navigation of this complex system requires an understanding of the components and connections that form HPE programs. Educators need shared maps that match this system to facilitate communication, progress, and efficiency.
Systems maps are useful for describing shared mental models and delineating educational processes and goals; they are particularly effective for revealing unproductive tendencies toward siloing. In ‘The Seven Silos of Accountability,’ Joshua Brown presents a model of accountability silos in higher education that is applicable to HPE. The seven silos are assessment, accreditation, institutional research, institutional effectiveness, program evaluation, educational measurement, and higher education public policy. Specialized stakeholders may lack understanding of this broad network, leaving leadership in the difficult position of ‘pulling it all together’ with limited backup and support.
One approach for enhancing integration, communication, and efficiency across silos is visualizing components of systems as a mechanism for identifying and solving system-level challenges. These visualizations result in a process map that reflects the terrain of an organization called an Organigraph. Organigraphs are practical tools that can be used to orient those new to HPE, facilitate systems-level improvements, and identify opportunities to streamline effort and innovation.
In this panel, members of four institutions will present an emerging collaborative effort to support HPE programs. We have designed an organigraph of the common organizational silos in UME as well as a user-sourced, interactive visualization of organizational silos to aid in orientation to HPE programs.

Learning Objectives: 61 words
At the end of this session, participants will be able to:
Identify three advantages of visualizing an organizational process map of the Health Professions education.
Describe three examples of how a systems approach can address silo-driven challenges in the academic program environment.
Demonstrate how systems visualization tools can be used to map accreditation needs across silos.
Discuss pain points of silos in a Health Professions education context and reflect on systems-based solutions.

Session Methods and Format: 109 words
Introduction and definition of 1) Silos in medical education, and 2) Organigraphs, followed by a presentation of current silos in UME, including examples of use cases from multiple institutions. (25 minutes)
Interactive reflection on silos in HPE: Structured large group discussion. (15 minutes)
Presentation of 1) an Organigraph that maps the silos and shows how they interact in the functional landscape of UME, 2) an interactive dashboard on these silos, and 3) how this visualization can be sourced by stakeholders. (25 minutes)
Interactive reflection on Organigraphs and visualization of silos in HPE: Structured large group discussion. (15 minutes)
Concluding remarks and Q&A session with the audience. (10 minutes)