Building the continuum of competency-based medical education

Abstract

Paul Batalden is credited with the observation that, ‘every system is perfectly designed for the results it generates’. In this volume of Perspectives in Medical Education, Chen and associates highlight the importance of this observation by describing self-reported gaps in preparedness of learners transitioning from undergraduate to graduate medical training [1]. By identifying these gaps, these authors highlight one of the most serious challenges facing the medical education community as it operationalizes competency-based medical education. Using Batalden’s axiom, learners experience a medical education system that is perfectly designed to inadequately prepare them for the next stage of their professional development and ultimately to work competently in the health care delivery system of the future.