Core competencies in dermatopathology

Medical education has traditionally focused on imparting medical knowledge, delivering quality patient care, and teaching research methodology. Various measures of success, including standardized testing, have been developed to assess the achievement of those goals. These measures then served as documentation of the effectiveness of individual training programs. However, in 1999, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) changed the way we measure the success of medical education. They developed six core competencies for medical education and assigned the task of enforcing them to the individual Residency Review Committees. By July 2006, all accredited programs, including dermatopathology fellowships, must use measurable, competency-based objectives, and assess achievement of those objectives. Programs should also be documenting ways they are improving the evaluation process. They must be in full compliance with implementation, measurement, and assessment of the six core competencies for accreditation. The next phase required by the ACGME involves developing curriculum based on competencies as well as using resident, fellow, or graduate competency performance to assess success in preparing trainees for the practice of medicine. This manuscript discusses measurable objectives to address the core competencies for dermatopathology fellowship training as well as dermatopathology rotations in dermatology and pathology residency training.