Competency-based medical education in the United States: What the otolaryngologist needs to know

Competency-based medical education (CBME) is an outcomes-focused approach to educating medical professionals that will be central to future efforts to improve resident training in otolaryngology. The transition to CBME for otolaryngology in the United States will require the development of specialty-specific assessments and benchmarks, the financial and administrative support for implementation, the professional development of faculty and learners, and the cooperation of all major stakeholders in graduate medical education. In this article, we describe the need for evidence-based innovation in surgical training, the history of CBME in the United States, and the progress towards defining “entrustable professional activities” as the building blocks of assessments for CBME. We explore what such a paradigm shift in surgical education could mean for academic otolaryngologists by examining innovative educational practices in other surgical specialties and discussing foreseeable challenges in implementation for the American healthcare system.