Dear colleagues,

As many of you may know through your involvement and contributions, CanMEDS, the physician competency framework that shapes physician education and the evolution of competence, is undergoing a review. Together with the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada (AFMC), the Collège des médecins du Québec (CMQ) and the College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC), it is our goal to have the next iteration ready for approval in late 2025, or early 2026.

To solicit meaningful feedback, as well as both member and public engagement in the development of this next iteration, the CanMEDS project has planned several Open Calls. The first CanMEDS Open Call was launched in October, and we've received a significant number of responses to date. I’d like to thank everyone for their input.

On November 23, a draft document from the CanMEDS Anti-Racism Expert Working Group that was shared on X (formerly Twitter) generated discussion and subsequent media attention about equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in the new model. Some of the online discussions seemed to suggest that the ideas expressed in these supporting documents were the proposed adaptations by the four partner organizations; rather, the documents were made available to solicit input and varied perspectives into evolving the future framework. 

Dialogue and feedback are both critical to the evolution of the CanMEDS Framework, including the comments that we are receiving through the Open Call. National consultations will continue to take place throughout this project and a draft framework will also be shared widely for feedback in 2025.  

How CanMEDS links to our overall Strategic Plan

Updates to the CanMEDS Framework closely align with the Royal College’s overall Strategic Plan, which, following extensive member consultations, identified three complex societal issues that are impacting the care specialist physicians deliver:

• health human resources and workforce well-being,
• Indigenous health, anti-racism, equity, diversity and inclusion, and
• planetary health and sustainable health care.

These issues need to be addressed collectively by our membership, and as such, we have integrated these as themes into each of our core areas of activity so we can begin to address the learning challenges and programming requirements inherent in each.

I would like to invite you to read the public statement we released in response to the recent discussions. This statement outlines how the CanMEDS Framework is being updated.

We want to keep the dialogue open. If you have feedback that will help guide the next phase of this work, please submit your responses to the CanMEDS Open Call by December 31, 2023.

Share your feedback
Thank you and take care,
Ian

M. Ian Bowmer, MDCM, FRCPC, FRCP, FCAHS, FACP(hon), FRCPI(hon)
Chief Executive Officer (interim) / Directeur général (intérimaire)
Royal College/ Collège royal
Royal College International / Collège royal international