Specialty education design
The Royal College is committed to fully support faculties of medicine as they transition to Competence by Design (CBD). The Royal College’s CBD transition workshops are designed to help you transition to CBD.
Adopting CBD starts with the specialty committee of each discipline, along with program directors, clinician educators, continuing professional development experts and invited guests. For approximately two-years they collaborate with the Royal College to:
- Sequence progression in their discipline using the stages of training laid out in the CBD Competence Continuum diagram
- Create specialty-specific milestones and entrustable professional activities (EPAs) relevant to each stage of training
- Integrate the CanMEDS Physician Competency Framework content and CanMEDS Milestones
- Five key things you should know about CanMEDS and Competence by Design
- Determine competency-based assessment practices
- Prepare for implementation: make plans to engage faculty and residents;map the curriculum.
Once these activities are complete (about two-years after the specialty committees begin working on CBD), residents entering the program begin experiencing aspects of the CBD model of assessment and learning.

Even if your discipline falls into one of the later cohorts, it makes sense to start planning today. Engaging faculty and mapping your curriculum are key steps to take today, which will help make CBD implementation faster and more efficient.
Resources
We are here to help you succeed with CBD. Contact us:
cbd@royalcollege.ca