ICRE Conference to examine medical education programs for training doctors

Experts from around the world gathered in Ottawa today for the start of the third annual International Conference on Residency Education (ICRE), which is being organized by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.

The unique three-day conference will examine current postgraduate medical education programs and challenges, and focus on emerging trends that could significantly change the way doctors are trained. 

The keynote speaker for the opening session, Dr. Brian Hodges, Director, Donald R. Wilson Centre for Research in Education, University of Toronto, says many reports in Canada and the United States have called for "significant changes to medical education that will allow doctors to better adapt to today's complex environments, work in teams, and meet a wide range of social needs."

"These proposed changes have created two powerful competing models of competence development operating at odds with one another at a time when doctors are facing increasing challenges in their work," says Dr. Hodges. 

"The medical profession, as a whole, must find a way forward on this issue," he says, "and be willing to incorporate new approaches to postgraduate medical education that promise to enhance patient safety and satisfaction, while fostering doctor well-being and professional development."

The traditional model of competence development is time-based and relies on students participating in an educational program for a historically determined fixed time period.  The newer model is outcomes-based and focuses more on the functional capabilities of the resident or practicing physician.

"Each of these models has its merits and drawbacks," says Dr. Hodges, "and this conference will be instrumental in helping us to examine them from different perspectives and in a real-world context.  For example, the outcomes-based model would mean having individualized, variable-length programs that might be excellent for competence development, but could be a real nightmare for teaching institutions to implement."

Under the theme "Residency Education, Reimagined," the conference will also examine a wide range of other issues facing postgraduate medical education.  These issues include continuing efforts to strike the right balance between patient safety and the hours worked by medical residents, which will be discussed at a groundbreaking half-day symposium within the conference.