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:

1. Learners are educated in a more inclusive, anti-racist environment that equitably supports the progress of all learners.
2. The medical education community implements CBME in new and emerging areas in diverse educational settings.
3. 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.
4. The AAMC is the medical education home for the community, offering curricular resources, professional development and collaborative partnerships in advancing CBME across the continuum.

• 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 ahead of print in December 2023 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.
• In collaboration with AAMC Action Plan 4, we completed a study on GME placement of US medical school graduates. Preliminary results were presented at the AAMC SGEA Spring meeting in April 2023 and at the AAMC Healthcare Workforce Research Conference in May 2023. The study will be shared when complete. (Supports Goal 1)
• The AAMC invites submissions 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)
• Shruti Chandra, MD, MEHP, Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University, has joined the AAMC as a consultant to co-lead the Competency-Based Education in Telehealth Challenge Grant Program. Dr. Chandra is a Telehealth practitioner and developer of the Telehealth Facilitator Certificate Program at Jefferson for which she is the program director. She is also the program director for Jefferson’s Telehealth and Digital Health graduate certificate programs. Dr. Chandra co-leads the AAMC Telehealth Medical Education committee and is the Telehealth Collection’s Editor for MedEdPORTAL. (Supports Goal 2)
• Through our Telehealth Challenge Grant Program: Responding to the Teaching and Assessment Needs of Academic Medicine, is entering 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)
• In mid-February, 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) closed the initial call for feedback on draft #1 of the UME Foundational Competencies. Following three weeks of surveying, over 1,000 responses were received. Major findings included that 87% of respondents felt that the draft competencies were clearly written and 82% felt that the draft competencies apply to all students, regardless of future specialty or medical school attended. Following feedback received on the initial draft of competencies, the diverse working group has continued to work on developing a second draft that builds upon this feedback. An invitation will be distributed to the public once again as a call for feedback on these updated competencies. (Supports Goal 3)
• The AAMC released this 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.
• 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)  

• The AAMC, AACOM, and ACGME will collect feedback on the second draft of UME foundational competencies; with this feedback, the final iteration of proposed competencies and subcompetencies will be developed before the project team moves into an adoption-focused approach. (Supports Goal 3)

• Submit materials for inclusion in the new “Constructing an Equitable Learning Environment” web-based compendium. (Supports Goal 1)
• If you are attending any of Spring AAMC education meetings, please join us for the following sessions:
  • Western GEA meeting Riverside, CA, May 4-7: “Program Directors’ Assessments of Postgraduate Year (PGY)-1 Residents’ Readiness for Graduate Medical Education (GME): A national cross-sectional study of MD medical-school graduates”, Sunday, May 5, 2024, from 1:15-2:15 p.m. (Supports Goal 3)
  • Northeast GEA meeting New York, NY: “Piloting a national curricular resource for the transition to surgical residency: Characteristics of participating schools and their students” on May 29, 2024, at the Poster Session from 6:30-8:30 p.m. (Supports Goal 4)
• The AAMC, AACOM and ACGME are continuing to collect community input to help inform their recommendations for undergraduate medical education competencies. Please take a moment to share your perspective. (Supports Goal 3)
• 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)
• Explore current trends in artificial intelligence (AI). Join the AI in Health Professions Education virtual community to engage with peers, share ideas and insights, ask questions, and develop professionally. Attend the AI in Academic Medicine Webinar Series to learn about the latest work happening across the community and explore best practices and challenges with experts. Check out this curated collection of the latest resources and scholarship and upcoming events addressing the use of AI in medical education. A complete list of the AAMC’s AI activities is also available. (Supports Goal 4)