CanMEDS 2025 Expert Working Group and ePanel Recruitment

Goal

A major goal of the CanMEDS 2025 project is to develop a framework of competencies that will be used by the diverse communities of people who set education and practice standards and provide quality care to patients.

Commitment

As we embark on the CanMEDS 2025 project, we are committed to focusing on a more inclusive, engaging and collaborative development process that reflects the expertise and perspectives of the diverse community of people who use CanMEDS to provide patient care to patients.

Engaging broad perspectives

As in the past, the content for the CanMEDS 2025 project will be drafted by a series of expert working groups (EWGs). While these drafts will be circulated for broad consultation at least twice there is still a significant privilege and responsibility for individuals who will serve as members of the EWGs. To this end, we introduced a process to make engagement in CanMEDS 2025 more inclusive than ever before and includes the input of ePanels.

The working groups are organized by CanMEDS physician roles:

  1. Medical Expert
  2. Communicator
  3. Collaborator
  4. Leader
  5. Health Advocate
  6. Scholar
  7. Professional

and by key theme

  1. Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Social Justice
  2. Anti-racism

  3. Physician Humanism [ - Collapse ]

    The concept of maintaining connection with an individual’s personhood to support physicians in extending humanistic care to patients and in other relationships. These include physical needs (nutrition, sleep, cognitive rest), social needs (personal safety, meaningful connection), and existential needs (value, meaning).

  4. Data Informed Medicine [ - Collapse ]

    Data Informed medicine is the collection, organization, storage, exchange, aggregation, and interpretation of health data, leveraged by physicians to optimize high quality patient care.

  5. Virtual care and Telemedicine [ - Collapse ]

    Any interaction between patients and/or members of their circle of care, occurring remotely, using any form of communication or information technologies, with the aim of facilitating or maximizing the quality of patient care. This includes but is not limited to telemedicine, mHealth, remote monitoring, and secure messaging via electronic medical records (EMRs).

  6. Planetary Health [ - Collapse ]

    The Planetary Health Alliance defines planetary health as “a solutions-oriented, transdisciplinary field and social movement focused on analyzing and addressing the impacts of human disruptions to Earth’s natural systems on human health and all life on Earth”. Planetary health addresses both the climate crisis and other ecological crises, including land destruction, biodiversity loss and pollution.

To learn more about the roles, please refer to:

Indigenous Learning Circle

Incorporating Indigenous Health into residency training and practice in Canada is a priority of the CanMEDS 2025 project. To this end, the Steering Committee made a concerted effort to recruit Indigenous leaders and educators to help guide the work of the 13 expert working groups. As expert working group members, their role is to contribute to the EWG discussions, but also share their unique experiences. To support these individuals, the Steering Committee, on the advice of the Indigenous Advisor, constituted an Indigenous Learning Circle that meets as needed, but minimally twice in 2023. This circle brings individuals together to explore arising issues and how to address them.

Co-led by the Indigenous Advisor and an Elder, the members of the circle may choose to engage the Royal College’s Elders Council for guidance during the project. 

Features of Recruitment Strategy

  • Mounted an open and transparent call for recruits championed by the Steering Committee and members of the National Advisory Board, which included broad promotion and targeted mailings
  • Developed a simple engagement process that gave interested people adequate time to apply
  • Provided channels for engagement that have both more time commitments (EWGs) and less time commitments (ePanels)
  • Ensured anyone who is interested can be engaged in at least one group
  • Developed selection criteria that is transparent and allows a selection committee to identify strong contributors
  • Convened a selection committee that is familiar with CanMEDS as well as the concepts of equity, diversity and inclusion
  • Ensured EWG chairs are trained to create a safe environment for the sharing of ideas

Status of Recruitment

Recruitment for the Expert Working Groups closed on September 30, 2022; the ePanel recruitment closed in mid-December 2022. Member selection and appointments occurred through November 2022 and January 2023. The EWGs and ePanels will begin their work in early 2023. 

For more information about the recruitment process please contact CanMEDSproject@RoyalCollege.ca.