General Information
There has been a growing consensus that graduates of medical education programs must master core knowledge, skills, and attitudes that are common to all specialties and practices. Core competencies are now being infused across the continuum of medical education, from undergraduate medical education, through residency and continuing medical education. Core competency requirements have been put forth by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and recommended by the American Board of Medical Specialties to its member boards. Accreditation requirements for medical students put forth by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education have instituted similar criteria. The Association of American Medical Colleges members and related groups are developing curricula and evaluation materials that will assist in meeting the core competency requirements.
The core competencies go beyond the requirement for mastery of biomedical knowledge and include areas of ethics, communication, professionalism and health care systems. The core competencies have now been broadly defined by the accrediting bodies in medical education. The challenge before medical educators is how to implement these new teaching and assessment mandates.
The 2003 ABSAME conference will highlight teaching and assessing core competencies in medical education. Emphasis will be on the critical role for the behavioral sciences in successfully meeting these mandates.
Special Student Award
Brief papers presented by student members of the organization (residents, graduate
students, and medical students) as first authors are eligible for the organizations’
highest student award, The Mauksch Award. These submission will be considered
for a "student scholars session" which is a judged session. Criteria
for judging will be provided to participants . A written copy of the final paper
must be provided by September 25, 2003. Students who wish to be considered for
this award should make the appropriate selection on their submission form.
The Association for the Behavioral Sciences and Medical Education has a long history of serving as a forum in which discussions reaching across the boundaries of traditional disciplines lead to new understanding and creative solutions to the pressing issues of medical education of the day. ABSAME is composed of members from both a variety of medical specialties (including family practice, internal medicine, pediatrics and psychiatry) and the broad range of social sciences (including psychology, sociology, anthropology, education and the humanities). Submissions from these or other related disciplines are invited.