Entrustable professional activities (EPAs) are one of the most popular approaches to competency-based medical education. However, empirical evidence of the use of EPAs in trainee assessment and results of their implementation in clinical contexts are just now becoming available. A new Academic Medicine supplement, Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs): Current State and Future Directions, collates articles-written by medical education leaders from a range of specialties and countries-that present the most up-to-date knowledge and thinking on EPA-based curricula and assessment. The complete supplement is free to read at academicmedicine.org.
Key takeaways from the 17 articles include:
- EPAs can help close the gap that exists between training and practice.
- Varied EPA phenotypes exist, but EPA genotypes should not vary.
- EPA descriptions can foster patient-centered or non–patient-centered care, and both intentional design and implementation are required to achieve patient-centered care.
- New technologies must be integrated in ways that further assessment for learning and lead to improved patient outcomes and experiences.
- Competency-based, time-variable training is the future.
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Toni Gallo
Educational Resources & Scholarship Lead
Association of American Medical Colleges
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