Bridging Continuum of Learning and Assessment

ABMS Insights (07/05/22)

The American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) community and its stakeholders have an opportunity to establish a continuum of learning and assessment via the migration to competency-based medical education (CBME). CBME concentrates on learners' ability to become competent in activities critical to patient care, rather than their ability to complete a program in a specific time or through a specific series of procedures. "CBME helps smooth ... important transitions [along the continuum] ... to facilitate ongoing growth and foster lifelong learning throughout a medical specialist's career," said American Board of Pediatrics (ABP) Vice President of CBME David Turner, MD. ABP and the American Board of Surgery (ABS) are developing entrustable professional activities (EPAs) in line with the Association of American Medical Colleges' core EPAs, Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME)/ABMS core competencies, and ACGME milestones. The milestones express individual behaviors for each competency along a continuum of development. "The EPAs, competencies, and milestones are complementary and should be used synergistically for assessment along the entire education continuum," Turner said. He added that the EPA scheme can propel professional development as doctors progress to the status of expert. "We don't think of these initiatives as isolated to the training setting, but rather as the ground floor of a continuum that defines the competent practitioner as someone committed in their daily work to ongoing improvement of their knowledge, skills, and behavior," said ABS Vice President John Mellinger, MD.

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