Revalidation

I have just been reading Greenhalgh and Wong's very sensible article about revalidation.¹ I am just about to do my first appraisal. I have looked at all the online portfolios I can find, including the NHS Appraisal Toolkit, the RCGP ePortfolio, and the new GPonline portfolio.

My problem is that they are all good for providing ‘evidence’, but that none of them is actually a good learning tool. I want a tool that allows me to store relevant clinical information and retrieve it again easily. A traditional computer file system is perfect for me, allowing me to subdivide into as many categories as I like, thus easily facilitating information retrieval. An ideal portfolio would allow us to prove that we've ‘ticked the boxes’ and would support learning by allowing easy information retrieval and by allowing the user to manipulate the system to their learning style. A system along the lines of ‘Google Docs’ or ‘Evernote’ would surely not be too hard to create. Revalidation should be about ‘continuous professional development’, not ‘box ticking’ and the eportfolios should reflect this.