What are Competence Based Medical Education (CBME) and Competence by Design (CBD)?

Competence based medical education (CBME) refers to a curriculum style. Curricula are moving from a time-based system, in which duration of experience leads to achievement, to a competency-based medical education (CBME) system, where clinical observation of behaviors and achievement of task specific milestones lead to the establishment of competence (Royal College, 2018). In CBME, the goal is to provide individual tailored instruction by faculty to each learner on specific tasks.

The Royal College of Physicans and Surgeons of Canada (2018) has created a national CBME curriculum called Competence by Design (CBD). For more information about CBD in each program at Memorial please see the link to the CBD page under CBD Resources. In CBD tasks are defined for each discipline and are broadly called "Entrustable Professional Activities" (EPAs). Each EPA is composed of Milestones that aid learners and faculty in understanding what constitues competent completion of each EPA. For more information about EPAs and Milestones in Internal Medicine, please click the link to the Royal College Website for CBD here or listed with other resources on our CBD Resources page.

We anticipate implementation of CBD for Internal Medicine on July 1, 2019. Faculty Development workshops, Grand Rounds, Viewpoints sessions etc. will be posted under 'Events." Please join the conversation by posting to the "Library" or consider adding commentary for discussion in Viewpoints sessions on our "Participate Here" page. All comments submitted for Viewpoints can remain anonymous.

If you're interested in getting involved, please contact one of the CBD Champions listed.