More than 200 health care leaders and medical educators from across the United States and Canada, and from as far away as Puerto Rico and Hawaii, came to Boston, Sept. 10-12, to attend THCI's conference, "Competency Assessment: Forethought not Afterthought: Current Practices and Innovations in Graduate Medical Education". The conference was designed to provide participants access to current practices and research opportunities in ACGME competency assessment. The program emphasized 4 of the 6 competence areas: Systems-based Practice, Practice-based Learning and Improvement, Interpersonal and Communication Skills, and Professionalism.

Plenary sessions, panel discussions, and workshops, focused on key issues relating to assessment of the new competencies. Session topics included:

• Integrating assessment into curriculum development and rotational objectives
• Understanding and applying assessment tools to measure and document resident competence
• Research initiatives and opportunities, including considerations for studying the impact of medical education approaches on clinical outcomes
• Faculty development
• Two parallel tracks, one for GME committee members on educating, motivating and preparing for institutional reviews in the ACGME competencies; and one for program directors on preparing for the RRC reviews

Spurring the change in medical education training is a set of new requirements from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), which is responsible for the accreditation of approximately 8,000 residency training programs within the U.S.

Among other directives, the ACGME requires that all training programs teach and demonstrate trainee competence in two new categories: systems-based practice and practice-based learning and improvement. In addition, guidelines from the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) on maintenance of certification require assessment of the same set of general competencies.

"The question will not always be what test will help me diagnose a patient, but what practices and tools should I employ to treat patients that make the best use of all available resources," said Dr. Deborah E. Powell, MD, Dean of the University of Minnesota Medical School, who delivered the conference's keynote address. "We must train new doctors to be excellent diagnosticians and clinicians in an increasingly resource-constrained health care environment."

Post-Conference Materials

Click here to view a summary PowerPoint presentation excerpted (with permission) from the plenary sessions and panel discussions. (Note: It may take 1 - 2 minutes to download the slides.)

Click here to download (in pdf format) an overview and summary of the conference. Full proceedings from the Conference will be available soon.

Click here for a summary of the attendees' evaluation.

Click here for attendees' responses to a follow-up survey.

For more information on the conference content, click here.

For more information, contact THCI at info@thci.org.

Course books containing presentation slides and reference materials, distributed to conference attendees, can be purchased for $250, while supplies last. Click here to order.