The future of the CanMEDS physician competency framework

Health professionals' education related to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities: A scoping review

“…Competency-based education has been an issue in healthcare professional education for many years, at least since the early 1990s (Thoma et al, 2023). In our review, competency-based education was discussed in the 1990s (Ferguson et al, 1990;Fox & Capone, 1993;Jacobs, 1999;Tracy & Graves, 1996;Vassiliou & Johnson, 1995) (Blue, Mitcham, et al, 2010), with many advocating that interprofessional education would only be effective in improving healthcare if it was embedded throughout the curricula of health professional education (Blue, Brandt, & Schmitt, 2010).…”

The physician of the future

“…This piece is inspired by the emerging concepts identified as key influences for the CanMEDS 2025 update. 1 The “physician of the future” is a young female of ambiguous race, embracing the increasing diversity of the medical profession. Her mask represents the longstanding impact of COVID on current and future physicians.…”

Everything alone: Is medical education chasing a harmful myth in its effort to embrace societal need?

“…In this era of competency‐based medical education, various frameworks have been developed to detail the many expectations we have of health care providers. The Canadian model, CanMEDS, 1 adopted or adapted by many countries, describes the ideal characteristics of a physician using seven distinct roles, which are currently undergoing revision 2 . The accompanying popularised symbol of a simple flower, with Medical Expert in the centre surrounded by six intrinsic competency petals, stands in stark contrast to the many layers of traits, skills, attitudes and ideologies within.…”

“…Rather than protecting the core , an alternative perspective is that the intrinsic Roles have begun to obscure the Medical Expert Role as societal needs and values evolve 2 . In fact, the medical profession is being called to reflect an ever‐increasing list of values that, while undeniably important, may not be sustainable for any one individual.…”

“…Nearly a decade ago, the 2015 CanMEDS framework was met with criticism for being encumbered by countless competencies and sub‐competencies 4 . Since then, scholars' predictions that teaching and assessment activities would become unsustainable are being realised, 5 yet the model (and others like it) continues to increase in complexity 2 . In this issue of Medical Education alone, there are papers reporting on explorations of how medical students help with climate disasters 6 and how they act to resist social injustice, 7 two of countless activities that take up considerable energy above and beyond what is expected of core medical training.…”