Accelerating Change in Medical Education

Across the continuum of physician education, the gap between how physicians are being trained and the future needs of our health care system continues to widen. The American Medical Association will work to bridge this gap by accelerating change in medical education in the United States.

In keeping with its historic leadership in physician education, the AMA will work to promote change that better aligns education results with the changing needs of our health care system by:

• DEVELOPING new methods for measuring and assessing key competencies for physicians at all training levels to create more flexible, individualized learning plans
• PROMOTING exemplary methods to achieve patient safety, performance improvement and patient-centered team care
• IMPROVING understanding of the health care system and health care financing in medical training
• OPTIMIZING the learning environment

In the next five years, the AMA will accomplish the following:

• Establish partnerships with select medical schools and health care systems to develop innovations supporting new, flexible and outcomes-based education across the continuum
• Convene a consortium of medical schools and additional partners to collaboratively evaluate successes and lessons learned
• Widely promote dissemination and adoption of successful innovations

At the same time, the AMA will continue its work to shape graduate medical education (GME) optimally. Ongoing efforts in this area will include working closely with ACGME and residency committees on GME standards as well as supporting federal and state-level advocacy that addresses GME and work
force issues

Finally, recognizing the ongoing learning needs of physicians, residents and students across the continuum of education, the AMA will facilitate electronic access to
AMA and JAMA CME while developing and disseminating additional learning tools that support students, residents and practicing physicians.

When we are successful, specified improvements to undergraduate medical education will have been tested, refined and adopted as mainstream options and our work will be aligned with changes in physician education across the continuum. The innovations will contribute in a meaningful way to the effectiveness of medical education, enabling the next generation of physicians to maintain the tradition of professional and clinical excellence within our evolving health care system.