...
FormR and TIS data as of early Oct 2024 were retrieved and used to evaluate potential methods of linking FormRs and programme memberships. Both submitted and draft forms were assessed.
Given that a subset of the these FormRs had been manually linked by trainees to particular programme memberships, these manual linkages were used to assess the potential accuracy of automated linkages. If the programme membership automatically selected for a given FormR was the same as that chosen by the trainee, then it was considered a ‘correct’ linkage; if it differed then it was considered erroneous. Two factors made this assumption less clear-cut:
...
Details of the rules for standardising FormR local offices are item A.
To make TIS programmes and specialties more consistent, TIS programme names were standardised and assigned a parent as defined in items B1 and B2.
Linking rules
A. Trainee has only a single programme membership
Rule:
If a trainee has only one programme membership, then any forms they have submitted must relate to that programme membership. SQL.
Matches:
FormR PartA: 33271 (27.9% of test dataset); 798 manually linked forms
FormR PartB: 40381 (28.6% of test dataset); 1310 manually linked forms
Errors:
7 trainee-linked forms referred to programme memberships that no longer exist, and were mis-linked to new programme memberships. As such, any rule to link forms in this way must allow for the possibility of programme memberships being deleted after having being linked to a form. This may best be handled by automatically delinking any form referring to a programme membership that is being deleted.
B. Unique current programme membership with matched local office and programme details
Rule:
Trainee has only one current programme membership starting more than 6 months ago, finishing more than 6 months in the future, with matching local office and programme details. SQL.
Matches:
FormR PartA: 339814 (33.4% of test dataset); 1096 manually linked forms
FormR PartB: 50379 (35.6% of test dataset); 1605 manually linked forms
Errors:
3 trainee-linked forms were mismatched. One of these looked like trainee-error