How Vivaldi Helped NBME Reimagine the Future of Medical Assessment

Healthcare

The Challenge

NBME set out to rethink board certification and the tools used to assess physicians during training and practice, addressing limitations in how continuous physician performance was measured in real clinical settings.

The Opportunity

Vivaldi partnered with NBME to pioneer workplace-based assessment standards integrated into clinical workflows for continuous feedback. Extensive stakeholder engagement and a strategic roadmap helped NBME build alignment and credibility with medical schools and educators.

The Outcome

NBME launched its Workplace-Based Assessment (WBA) initiative with support from top US medical schools, solidifying its leadership in the assessment space and creating momentum for broader adoption across medical education.

NBME Case Study Summary

NBME engaged Vivaldi to rethink how physicians are assessed during training and practice, addressing limitations in how continuous performance was being measured in real clinical settings. Vivaldi partnered with NBME to pioneer workplace-based assessment standards integrated into clinical workflows for continuous feedback, running stakeholder engagement and a strategic roadmap that helped NBME launch its Workplace-Based Assessment initiative with support from top US medical schools.

About NBME

The National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) is a US nonprofit headquartered in Philadelphia that develops assessments for medical professionals, most notably co-sponsoring the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE). Founded in 1915, NBME plays a central role in how physicians are evaluated throughout training and practice.

Frequently Asked Questions

What did Vivaldi help NBME achieve with workplace-based assessment?

Vivaldi helped NBME launch its Workplace-Based Assessment initiative with backing from top US medical schools, solidifying NBME’s leadership in physician assessment. The work also created momentum for broader adoption of WBA across medical education and gave NBME a credible platform beyond its traditional licensure exam role.

How did Vivaldi build medical school alignment around a new assessment model?

Extensive stakeholder engagement preceded the strategic roadmap because workplace-based assessment lives or dies on whether medical school leadership commits to using it in clerkships and residency, not on the elegance of the framework. The engagement let NBME surface concerns from program directors and adapt the model, which is what produced the adoption backing rather than a polite endorsement.

Why does workplace-based assessment matter for the future of physician evaluation?

Physician competence is demonstrated in clinical settings over time, and assessments anchored in standardized exams alone miss the behaviors that matter most for patient outcomes once a physician is in practice. WBA shifts the assessment paradigm toward continuous observation in real workflows, which is the only credible way to evaluate competencies that exam-based testing structurally cannot measure.

What can other credentialing organizations take from the NBME approach?

The transferable lesson is that credentialing innovation has to be co-designed with the institutions that will administer it, because a new assessment model is only as credible as the schools and employers willing to use it in real decisions. Credentialing bodies that develop frameworks internally and then market them outward tend to see adoption stall, while ones that build alignment first see broader uptake faster.