On the Outcome Project

Background: In 2001, graduate medical education in the United States was renovated to better complement 21st century developments in American medicine, society, and culture. As in 1910, when Abraham Flexner was charged to address a relatively non-standardized system that lacked accountability and threatened credibility of the profession, Dr. David Leach led the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) Outcome Project in a process that has substantially changed medical pedagogy in the United States. Methods: Brief review of the Flexner Report of 1910 and 6 hours of interviews with leaders of the Outcome Project (4 hours with Dr. David Leach and 1-hour interviews with Drs. Paul Batalden and Susan Swing). Results: Medical educational leaders and the ACGME concluded in the late 1990s that medical education was not preparing clinicians sufficiently for lifelong learning in the 21st century. A confluence of medical, social, and historic factors required definitions and a common vocabulary for teaching and evaluating medical competency. After a deliberate consensus-driven process, the ACGME and its leaders produced a system requiring greater accountability of learners and teachers, in six explicitly defined domains of medical “competence.” While imperfect, this construct has started to take hold, creating a common vocabulary for longitudinal learning, from undergraduate to post-graduate (residency) education and in the assessment of performance following graduate training.