A CanMEDS-Based Approach to Physician Evaluation and Performance Assessment

Nova Scotia Health aims to strengthen continuous professional development, leadership growth, and patient care through a structured physician assessment framework grounded in CanMEDS roles and Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, Reconciliation, and Accessibility (EDIRA) principles. We evaluated multisource (360-degree) feedback tools to support voluntary, confidential, and formative professional development across diverse practice settings. Five commercially available platforms (Pulse 360, MCC 360, Trakstar, SurveySparrow, and 15Five) were compared for alignment with CanMEDS competencies, usability, flexibility, cost, and capacity to support leadership development. Pulse 360 and MCC 360 demonstrated the strongest alignment with guiding principles. Pulse 360 was favoured for its customization, efficiency, benchmarking capability, integrated coaching resources, and overall cost-effectiveness. We recommend adopting Pulse 360 in 2- to 3-year cycles, beginning with a pilot implementation at a medium-sized institution to support scalable physician leadership development and organizational improvement.