Sep 5, 2024 • By Valerie Simione

From December 2022 through March 2023, the ACGME Family Medicine Review Committee (FMRC) and the ABFM established the “core outcomes” of family medicine residency education, building on the EPAs developed previously in Family Medicine and with input from all the organizations of Family Medicine. The core outcomes capture the broad scope of practice we want all graduates to be able to do on graduation; they represent observable behaviors that can be improved with deliberate practice.

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The ABFM core outcomes focus on 12 competencies necessary for autonomous family physicians.

The transition from residency education that emphasizes counts and hours to competency assessment is a major change for Family Medicine. Starting July 1, 2023, it will affect all program directors, faculty, and residents.

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Beginning in June 2024, the ABFM will ask that program directors attest that each resident applying for ABFM Board Eligibility has completed residency and is competent in the following core outcomes of residency:

• Practice as personal physicians, providing first contact, comprehensive and continuity care, to include excellent doctor-patient relationships, excellent care of chronic disease and routine preventive care and effective panel and patient management.
• Diagnose and manage acute illness and injury for people of all ages in the emergency room or hospital.
• Provide comprehensive care of children, including diagnosis and management of the acutely ill child and routine preventive care.
• Develop effective communication and constructive relationships with patients, clinical teams, and consultants.
• Model professionalism and be trustworthy for patients, peers, and communities.

What assessments should be used for the first installments? Literature on assessment is burgeoning and is available on the ACGME Learn portal and other settings. ABFM and the FMRC look to family medicine academic organizations for guidance on best assessments as well as support for further development, testing and dissemination of new assessments. While optimizing assessment is critical, however, perhaps most important for the transition to CBME is a shared understanding of outcomes among the faculty who assess and give feedback to residents, and a robust and targeted faculty development program. To meet this need, the STFM Task Force on Assessment has developed recommendations for assessment and faculty development and also mapping the ACGME competencies to the core outcomes.

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How is New Innovations helping? With permission from the STFM, we have made 13 of their established assessments available in the Evaluation Form Library located in our Knowledge Base. These forms are available for Family Medicine programs to review and to request to receive a copy. Additionally, our team has released a unique evaluation form template to address the Active Assessment Using Direct Observation requirement. The Direct Observation Assessment of Patient Encounter form is available through Evaluations > Evaluation Forms > External Templates Available. Check the box “Active” to make this template, “Active Assessment Using Direct Observation” available for use in your Sessions. Observations made through this form map to the ABFM Outcomes (coming soon) and Milestones.