International Approaches in Continuing Professional Development

On March 4, 2019

Australian Professor “Liz” Farmer and Canada’s Dr. Craig Campbell discuss international approaches to continuing professional development, drawing similarities between their countries’ approaches and ABMS’ efforts to advance continuing certification.

TRANSCRIPT: [Craig Campbell, MD, RCPS-Canada] The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada decided to transition to a competency-based continuing professional development system to ensure that Residents graduating from Residency programs that were competency-based had a system that would support their learning and continuous improvement throughout practice. Discussions on the foundation for a competency-based system have centered on a number of important concepts including relating learning and improvement to a specialist’s scope of practice and aligning education to team-based care.

[Elizabeth Ann Farmer, Medical Board of Australia] There are tremendous parallels between what the Medical Board of Australia are doing and what the ABMS are doing, particularly in their absolute determination that doctors will continue their professional development throughout their lives and that they will maintain their currency and that they will strive to enhance their patient care.

[Craig Campbell, MD] There are several parallels from the ABMS MOC program that we’ve been paying attention to as we transition to a competency-based CPD system in Canada. The first is the importance of data and feedback that guides learning and improvement. The other is the importance of the maintenance certification program being a collective responsibility of multiple types of organisations particularly in its implementation. And the third would be that it has to have a common set of purpose and goals and educational principles that underlie the foundation for the program itself.

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