Action Plan 1: Strengthen the Medical Education Continuum for Transformed Health Care and Learning Environments
Through this action plan, the AAMC builds on its history of fostering innovation in competency-based medical education (CBME).
We seek to better align educational outcomes across medical schools and their clinical partners and across the medical education continuum to improve patient-level and system-level outcomes.
This action plan has four major goals:
- Learners are educated in a more inclusive, anti-racist environment that equitably supports the progress of all learners.
- The medical education community implements CBME iin new and emerging areas in diverse educational settings.
- U.S. medical schools move toward uniform adoption of a set of foundational competencies for undergraduate medical education that aligns across the medical education continuum.
- The AAMC is the medical education home for the community, offering curricular resources, professional development and collaborative partnerships in advancing CBME across the continuum.
Where we are now
- Our study of the 2021 AAMC Medical School Graduation Questionnaire was published in Journal of Surgical Education in April 2023. The study analyzed the Graduation Questionnaire results to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on in-person and virtual away rotations by specialty. The study results suggest various surgical specialties were among the early innovators of virtual rotations. (Supports Goal 1)
- Our study of graduating medical students’ perceptions of the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on their medical school experiences and preparation for careers as physicians has been published in May 2024 in Academic Medicine. This national study highlights what students perceive as valuable fundamental elements of medical education and student support and how innovation can improve long-standing practices in optimizing student learning, engagement, and well-being. (Supports Goal l)
- The Telehealth Challenge Grant Program: Responding to the Teaching and Assessment Needs of Academic Medicine is in year two of the grant and continuing the development of tools and resources to train and access competence in telehealth. The AAMC Telehealth Challenge Grant Program was created with the goal of developing, disseminating, and integrating competency-based interprofessional education in telehealth as well as creating a cross-continuum community of educators actively working to cultivate telehealth in medical student, resident, and continuing education programs. Learn more about this program and the effort of each of our grant recipients. (Supports Goal 2)
- The AAMC released a PDF data snapshot entitled, “Medical School Transition to Residency (TTR) Courses: Recent Trends and Current Status” that showed that the prevalence of required TTR courses steadily increased among U.S. MD-granting schools over the past six years, with differences among medical schools regarding the balance of general and specialty-specific course focus and the curricular content of these courses. (Supports Goal 4)
- Our study entitled, “Piloting a National Curricular Resource for the Transition to Surgical Residency”, describing characteristics of participating schools and their students has been published in the March 2024 issue of Journal of Surgical Education. (Supports Goal 4)
- In collaboration with Action Plan 4, Our study entitled,"U.S. Medical School Graduates’ Placement in Graduate Medical Education: A National Study" has been published ahead of print in Academic Medicine.(Supports Goal 1)
- The AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges), the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine (AACOM), and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) released the of Foundational Competencies for Undergraduate Medical Education Report in December 2024. (Supports Goal 3)
- Our research study of the first three years of the AAMC Resident Readiness Survey (RRS) data, entitled “Program Directors’ Assessments of US Medical Graduates’ Transition to Residency” has been published in the January 9, 2025 issue of JAMA Network Open. (Supports Goal 3)
- At the Asia Pacific Medical Education Conference in Singapore, there was a presentation on the Foundational Competencies for UME project as part of a session entitled, “Perspectives on Implementing Competency-based Medical Education in Undergraduate and Graduate Medical Education: Exploring Progress to Date, Impediments and Opportunities" on Saturday, January 18, 2025. (Supports Goal 3)
- With the release of the Foundational Competencies for UME report, efforts are now focused on supporting the actualization of competency based education. This includes coordinating the newly launched CBME Learning Community to accelerate the transition to CBE in UME across the U.S. Other efforts include developing and updating guides and tools to support faculty development, adapting the ACGME Assessment Course for UME, and revisiting, refreshing, and reconsidering relevant CBME resources (e.g, MSPE Guidance, AAMC Core EPAs for Entering Residency) (Supports Goal 3)
What happens next
- The Competency-Based Education in Telehealth Challenge Grant Program will end this Spring. The 24-month grant will conclude with a webinar that will highlight each of the program’s accomplishments, including examples of tools and assessment methods to integrate the Telehealth Competencies into the curriculum. Several of the grantees are also working on submissions to the Telehealth Education Collection in MedEdPORTAL. (Supports Goal 2)
- At the upcoming ACGME Annual Conference to be held in Nashville TN February 20-22 2025, there will be two sessions featuring the AAMC Resident Readiness Survey: “Resident Readiness Survey – Helping Transition Your New Residents on Friday, Feb. 21 from 1:30-2:45 p.m. CT; and “Feed back and feed forward: Informing the UME to GME continuum” on Saturday, Feb 22 from 8:15 – 9:30 AM. There will be one session featuring the Core Competencies for Undergraduate Medical Education entitled, “Shaping Tomorrow’s Physicians: Mastering Foundational Competencies for Residency Readiness” on Saturday Feb 22 from 2:30 – 3:45 PM CT. (Supports Goal 3).
Ways to get involved
- The co-sponsors for the UME Foundational Competencies initiative are actively engaged in creating additional resources and offerings to support the use of the competencies in local practice. This includes a new learning community for Competency Based Medical Education (CBME) in UME, instructional guides, and a new faculty development train-the-trainer course. As these become available in 2025, details will be added to this website and shared broadly. Please direct questions or concerns to CBME@aamc.org. (Supports Goal 3)
- Submit materials for inclusion in the new “Constructing an Equitable Learning Environment” web-based compendium, a collection of timely and diverse materials that support an anti-racist, inclusive, and equity-centered learning environment. Successful submissions will include content aligned with the competency domains described in the AAMC’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Competencies Across the Learning Continuum report. Resources will be reviewed on a rolling basis, and the call will remain open until the compendium addresses all the competency domains. (Supports Goal 1)
- Make the AAMC your medical education home! Explore what the AAMC has to offer, from tailored learning events, trainings, and professional development conferences to programs, initiatives, data, and scholarship on key and emerging topics. Get involved, advance your career, and help move the field of medical education forward. (Supports Goal 4)
- New AAMC Artificial Intelligence (AI) Resource Collections Seeking Submissions. The AAMC recognizes the growing importance of AI across academic medicine and is committed to fostering innovation. Help move the field forward by submitting your work to two new AI resource collections published by the AAMC. (Supports Goal 4)
- The Advancing AI Across Academic Medicine Resource Collection will launch spring 2025 and feature early educational materials, promising practices, policies, and pilot projects. The goal is to advance collaboration and knowledge sharing and spark innovative thinking. Submit your resources.
- The MedEdPORTAL AI Education Collection is intended for fully developed innovations that have already been implemented and evaluated. This collection will highlight the work of all those who are driving AI education towards improved patient care. Submit your teaching and learning resources.