The Osteopathic Considerations for Core Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) for Entering Residency

The EPAs were originally conceptualized by Olle ten Cate in the Netherlands and further matured as units of professional practice, defined as tasks or responsibilities that trainees are entrusted to perform unsupervised once they have attained sufficient specific competence.

EPAs are independently executable, observable, and measurable in their process and outcome, and therefore, suitable for entrustment decisions. Therefore, the EPAs provide direct relevancy of the competencies and related milestones into the work of the health care professional.

As an extension of these assessment innovations in GME, the AAMC developed 13 Core EPA for Entering Residency in 20145 as a subset list of integrated clinical activities that all MD graduates making the transition from medical school to residency should be expected to independently perform upon entering any GME program.

In that same year, AACOM's Board of Deans approved an initiative charging its Society of Osteopathic Medical Educators (SOME) to further examine and provide osteopathic medical consideration and perspective into these 13 EPAs. Under this charge, SOME synthesized a steering committee, guiding liaison representatives from each of its osteopathic medical programs to review and identify relevant items within the AAMC-identified activities requiring osteopathic consideration.

This document is a culmination of those deliberations that may assist and guide your programs' activities in curriculum development.

Access the document here