An IME needs narrative from evidence you already hold

What you’re making

A draft needs-assessment and educational-design narrative you can drop into your proposal template: gap, evidence, objectives, format rationale, and an outcomes plan at an honest Moore level.

This is the medical education company’s bread and butter. It is also where independence fails quietly. A supporter’s RFP can describe a “need” that is really a product story. Accredited education has to start from a gap you can defend without that document.

What to have open

Your independently gathered evidence, with the numbers exactly as you have them. The learner description. Format and length you can actually deliver. A previous narrative that your accreditation reviewer did not send back.

If you have house rules about words you never use in a needs assessment (“unmet need” next to a product class, “novel agent” without a comparator), paste them.

The prompt

I am drafting a needs assessment for an accredited independent medical education activity. I am the author of record. Do not draft the proposal yet.

PROPOSED GAP, IN MY WORDS:
[paste]

EVIDENCE I ACTUALLY HOLD (numbers and sources I have opened):
[paste]

LEARNERS:
[paste]

FORMAT AND LENGTH WE CAN DELIVER:
[paste]

Tell me:
1. What story does this evidence actually support, in three sentences, including the unflattering parts.
2. Where the evidence does not support a gap I might want to claim.
3. Which sentences in my proposed gap sound like promotional framing rather than a practice gap. Quote them.
4. What is missing that an accreditation reviewer would reasonably expect.

Use only my figures. Do not add prevalence, market, or citation data.

Read that answer before you write the narrative. Question 3 is the one that keeps supporter language out.

Draft the needs and design narrative using this structure:

1. Practice gap (current vs desired state)
2. Evidence for the gap (only my sources)
3. Educational need (knowledge, competence, or performance)
4. Learners and practice setting
5. Learning objectives (three, measurable)
6. Why this format and length
7. Outcomes plan, with the highest Moore level we will actually measure
8. Independence note: how content control stays with the accredited provider

Requirements:
- Match the tone of the sample below.
- Every number is one I gave you. Never round to impress.
- Do not name a commercial product or device unless it appears in my evidence block.
- Do not write "unmet need" unless I used that phrase in a source I pasted.
- If the data only support knowledge, do not promise performance outcomes.
- Mark missing pieces as [NEEDS:].

SAMPLE NARRATIVE IN OUR HOUSE VOICE:
[paste]

MY EVIDENCE AND GAP, REVISED AFTER TURN ONE:
[paste]

How to check it

Source pass. Every figure points at a line you pasted. Anything else is deleted.

Independence pass. Search the draft for brand names, device names, and the supporter’s stock phrases. If you recognize a sentence from an RFP you did not paste, you still have a problem: it came from the model’s training or from your own first draft. Rewrite it.

Level pass. The outcomes section names the measurement you will actually field. Self-reported intent is not performance.

Objective pass. Use the same four checks as needs assessment to objectives.

Where it goes wrong

It writes the supporter’s story more fluently than they did. That is the failure that matters. Turn one exists to catch it.

It invents epidemiology. Prevalence, cost-of-illness, and “only X percent of clinicians” figures appear from nowhere. Delete them.

It promises level 5 from a post-test. Same failure as the outcomes report. After the activity, the supporter-outcomes dialect keeps promised versus measured in two columns.

It adds faculty names. Do not let it staff the activity.

An IME needs narrative from evidence you already hold · bettermethod.ai/recipes/ime-grant-narrative/ · Last reviewed August 2026
These tools change often. Check the review date before you rely on anything product-specific in here, and check the guidance against your own accreditor and organization policies.