The ASCP Resident In-Service Examination (RISE) Committee develops in-service examinations for residents/fellows and their respective programs to assess their progress. The RISE program has been undergoing some exciting updates recently, which will be unveiled at the upcoming ASCP Annual Meeting.

Here, committee chair Kimberley Sanford gives a flavor of the updates and their rationale.

The following transcript has been edited for clarity.

Hi, I'm Dr. Kimberly Sanford, transfusion medicine medical director at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. I'm also an ASCP past president and currently the ASCP RISE committee chair. 

I'd like to invite you to come hear our session that Dr. Amy Spiczka and I will be presenting on ASCP RISE engagement strategies. 

This session that Dr. Spiczka and I will present will focus on sharing the modernization of the RISE. The ASCP RISE has contributed to resident and fellow readiness for pathology licensure for over 40 years. In addition, the RISE has helped program directors assess curricula and help drive program enhancements. 

But over the last four decades, changes have occurred to both program curriculums as well as the assessment of resident training. Additionally, program director terms have become shorter due to competing demands in academic medical centers. Thus, this has resulted in a new cohort requiring continuous orientation to the RISE. 

ASCP has implemented several changes to effectively modernize the RISE program that requires communication with our end users. First, we've created new individual and institutional systems to improve our customer experience. We're also developing Tableau data analytics to better visualize program data and also serve as a self-assessment tool for residents and fellows with the end goal of creating a self-directed learning outcome. 

In this session, we will provide a real time demonstration of Tableau insights and analytics to assess the program and resident performance. We'll explain the difference between the raw and percentile scores in resident and fellow assessments. We'll explain the missed question report and how it can be used to identify opportunities to create individualized learning plans. We'll also review proctoring versus non-proctoring guidelines and their impact on examination performance. And last, we'll explain how to transform RISE data into actionable educational strategies. 

So, please join Dr. Amy Spiczka and I at our session at the ASCP 2026 annual meeting. See you there.

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