Medical Expert
Definition
As Medical Experts, physicians integrate all of the CanMEDS Roles, applying medical knowledge, clinical skills, and professional values in their provision of high-quality and safe patient-centred care. Medical Expert is the central physician Role in the CanMEDS Framework and defines the physician’s clinical scope of practice.
Description
As Medical Experts who provide high-quality, safe, patient-centred care, physicians draw upon an evolving body of knowledge, their clinical skills, and their professional values. They collect and interpret information, make clinical decisions, and carry out diagnostic and therapeutic interventions. They do so within their scope of practice and with an understanding of the limits of their expertise. Their decision-making is informed by best practices and research evidence, and takes into account the patient’s circumstances and preferences as well as the availability of resources. Their clinical practice is up-to-date, ethical, and resource efficient, and is conducted in collaboration with patients and their families,* other health care professionals, and the community. The Medical Expert Role is central to the function of physicians and draws on the competencies included in the Intrinsic Roles (Communicator, Collaborator, Leader, Health Advocate, Scholar, and Professional).
KEY CONCEPTS
- Agreed-upon goals of care: 2.1, 2.3, 2.4, 3.2, 4.1
- Application of core clinical and biomedical sciences: 1.3
- Clinical decision-making: 1.4, 1.6, 2.2
- Clinical reasoning: 1.3, 1.4, 2.1, 3.1
- Compassion: 1.1
- Complexity, uncertainty, and ambiguity in clinical decision-making: 1.6, 2.2, 2.4, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4
- Consent: 3.2
- Continuity of care: 2.4, 4.1
- Duty of care: 1.1, 1.5, 2.4
- Integration of CanMEDS Intrinsic Roles: 1.2
- Interpreting diagnostic tests: 2.2
- Medical expertise: all enabling competencies
- Patient-centred clinical assessment and management: 1.4, 2.2, 2.4, 3.1, 3.3, 3.4, 4.1, 5.2
- Patient safety: 1.5, 3.4, 5.1, 5.2
- Prioritization of professional responsibilities: 1.4, 1.5, 2.1, 3.3, 5.1
- Procedural skill proficiency: 3.1, 3.3, 3.4
- Quality improvement: 5.1, 5.2
- Self-awareness of limits of expertise: 1.4, 3.4
- Timely follow-up: 1.4, 2.2, 4.1
- Working within the health care team: 1.3, 1.4, 2.1, 2.4, 3.3, 4.1, 5.1
Key competencies | Enabling competencies |
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* Throughout the CanMEDS 2015 Framework and Milestones Guide, references to the patient’s family are intended to include all those who are personally significant to the patient and are concerned with his or her care, including, according to the patient’s circumstances, family members, partners, caregivers, legal guardians, and substitute decision-makers.
Tools
Where are these tools from?
Many of the tools were originally developed for the CanMEDS Teaching and Assessment Tools Guide.
The title codes on the tools are maintained to allow quick cross-referencing between the CanMEDS Tools Guide and this online registry (e.g. T1, T2, A1)
The tools are part of the Royal College’s commitment to support the roll-out of CanMEDS 2015.

Tips on using these Tools
- Many of the Tools are designed to use as-is (i.e. no further work required)
- Some tools are also available in MSWord format. This allows you to easily manipulate the ‘bones’ of the tool and customize it for your own use
- When reproducing and modifying the tools, please maintain the footer that acknowledges the source
- Clarify the teaching and assessment goals of your specific context;
- Select the right tools to match the particular needs and goals of your specific context; and
- Combine Roles and tools in an effective and efficient manner
Teaching
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T1. Lecture or Large Group Session: Foundations of the Medical Expert Role
Download MS Word | Download PDF -
T2. Presentation: Teaching the Medical Expert Role
Download PDF | Download Power Point -
T3. Guided Reflection: Medical Expert Role competence continuum in day-to-day practice
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T4. Simulation: Patient-centeredness in patient-physician relationships
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T5. Ward Rounds: Oral case presentation via SNAPPS
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T6. Coaching: One minute preceptor template for coaching the Medical Expert Role
Download MS Word | Download PDF -
T7. Coaching: I don't know activity to develop help-seeking behaviours
Download MS Word | Download PDF
Assessment
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A1. Multisource Feedback: Types of Expertise
Download MS Word | Download PDF
This work by Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.