What's new in graduate medical education?

The development of new graduate medical education programmes provides both opportunities and challenges. Efforts to address physician workforce shortages as well as a realisation that curricula need to be updated to adjust to our rapidly changing healthcare environment have resulted in more educators considering the how to and what's new of programme development. Understanding the Next Accreditation System, an accreditation system introduced by the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education in 2012, is critical to the success of new as well as existing residency and fellowship programmes. Although many educators are aware of the general rational for the Next Accreditation System, an in-depth understanding of the meaning of Next Accreditation System is necessary from an experiential and theoretical perspective to be able to successfully launch new programmes and moves towards accreditation. A new paediatric categorical residency programme and a new paediatric surgical programme were developed at our institution immediately following the implementation of Next Accreditation System. We provide a series of insights and perspectives based on our experience relative to what priorities we saw outlined from both the programmatic and the institutional perspective to have our graduate medical education programmes reviewed for accreditation. During this discussion, the following objectives are outlined: to overview the Next Accreditation System as a framework and priorities, to discuss the opportunities and challenges that may exist in developing new programmes, and to discuss future directions in the evaluation of trainees and assessment of training competency. Although challenges are outlined, we hope to relay the continued excitement and opportunities that exist relative to enhancing training curricula for future graduate medical education programme builders.