Implementation and Impact of Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) in Health Professions Education: A Global...

Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) have emerged as a key framework in health professions education, facilitating the development and assessment of competencies in healthcare professionals. Despite the rapid expansion of EPA-related research, the global distribution, thematic trends, and scholarly equity surrounding these studies remain underexplored. The existing literature, while growing, lacks a systematic and quantitative examination of the geographical and institutional origins of EPA research.

This bibliometric study analyzes a dataset of 966 publications sourced from the Web of Science Core Collection, spanning from 2005 to 2025. The analysis includes an examination of publication trends, collaborative networks, and thematic shifts over the two-decade period.

The findings reveal a dominance of EPA research originating from North America and Europe, with significantly less representation from the Global South. Over time, there has been a shift in research focus from the development of EPA frameworks to the study of their implementation in clinical education settings. Collaboration patterns suggest a concentration of research activity within a few high-resource regions, with limited cross-regional partnerships.

This study provides a comprehensive overview of the global landscape of EPA research, uncovering knowledge disparities and underrepresented regions. It highlights the need for more inclusive and equitable contributions from the Global South and suggests that future research efforts should prioritize collaborative, international approaches to enhance the diversity and applicability of EPA scholarship.