Medical Residency Milestones: Competencies in Informatics, Library, and Evidence-Based Practice

The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) sets standards known as Milestones and monitors the progress of medical residents as they advance toward medical practice in their specialties. Health sciences librarians need to train medical residents in certain competency areas to help reach the Milestone standards. This project analyzed the Milestones related to informatics, library, and evidence-based practice (EBP) skills to identify core and optional library-related curricular elements that can be integrated into different medical specialty residencies. The authors collected key competency documents from ACGME and from those specialties representing 2% or more of the residencies in the United States. Then, they compared and contrasted those Milestones related to informatics, library, and EBP competency skills. Most relevant Milestones were categorized under the fifth broad ACGME competency area of "Practice Based Learning and Improvement." The Milestones followed developmental patterns, reflecting residents' increased sophistication in meeting these competencies as they advanced in their specialties. The curriculum was designed to meet the residents' learning needs at each progressive Milestone.