Can Medical Education Be a TIMELESS Experience? Making the Case for Competency-Based Time-Variable Training in GME

Course Overview

Since the 1910 Flexner Report, graduate medical education (GME) training has used time-in-training as a surrogate for competence, an approach that assumes that learners gain competence in a relatively uniform manner. However, a growing body of competency-based medical education (CBME) research shows that this assumption is untrue, and that time should be a resource, not a measuring stick. GME learners should progress through training at a rate commensurate with their actual competence as measured by robust programmatic assessment. Transitioning to a competency-based time-variable training (CBTVT) approach would represent a major paradigm shift for many GME programs and present multiple adaptive challenges. In this workshop, the presenters will describe the history of GME training in the United States, articulate the rationale and supporting evidence for CBTVT, share successes and ongoing challenges from an ongoing CBTVT pilot in one internal medicine residency program called TIMELESS (Transitions in Internal Medicine Education Leveraging Entrustment Scales and Scores), and invite a conversation around the practical and theoretical benefits and challenges of CBTVT.

Learning Objectives

Articulate the shortcomings of the current system of time-based training
Debate the merits of competency-based time-variable training
Explore solutions to implementation challenges inherent to time-variable training

Speakers

Benjamin Kinnear MD
University of Cincinnati College of Medicine

Bi A. Awosika MD, FACP, SFHM
University of Cincinnati College of Medicine

Danny Clancy Trotier MD
University of Cincinnati College of Medicine

Maximilian Cruz MD
University of Cincinnati College of Medicine

Additional Information

Year Published: 2022 - AIMW