Curriculum inventory: Modeling, sharing and comparing medical education programs

Abstract descriptions of how curricula are structured and run. The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) MedBiquitous Curriculum Inventory Standard provides a technical syntax through which a wide range of different curricula can be expressed and subsequently compared and analyzed. This standard has the potential to shift curriculum mapping and reporting from a somewhat disjointed and institution-specific undertaking to something that is shared among multiple medical schools and across whole medical education systems. Given the current explosion of different models of curricula (time-free, competency-based, socially accountable, distributed, accelerated, etc.), the ability to consider this diversity using a common model has particular value in medical education management and scholarship. This article describes the development and structure of the Curriculum Inventory Standard as a way of standardizing the modeling of different curricula for audit, evaluation and research purposes. It also considers the strengths and limitations of the current standard and the implications for a medical education world in which this level of commonality, precision, and accountability for curricular practice is the norm rather than the exception.