Competency frameworks continue to evolve across the health professions. In recent years, major accrediting bodies in medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, veterinary medicine, and physician assistant education have introduced updated standards that reflect a stronger emphasis on learner outcomes, assessment data, and clear curricular alignment.

While each framework is unique, several themes do emerge: more clearly defined competencies, increased use of Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs), and expanded domains covering digital health, equity, and systems-based care. These shifts are influencing how programs structure their curricula, assess learners, and prepare for accreditation.

A New Baseline for Undergraduate Medical Education 

In December 2024, the AAMC, AACOM, and ACGME jointly published a unified set of Foundational Competencies for Undergraduate Medical Education. The framework includes six core domains and 45 sub-competencies that apply to both MD and DO programs, along with four additional competencies specific to osteopathic education.

Resources to support implementation, including faculty development communities and instructional tools, are being rolled out throughout 2025. Institutions are already beginning to align their curricula, EPAs, and assessment strategies to this shared national standard.

Updates Across the Health Professions

Significant changes have also taken place, or are currently underway, in other health professions as well:

• Dentistry (U.K.): The General Dental Council (GDC) has a new Safe Practitioner framework, which will replace the 2015 version of Preparing for Practice in 2025 and introduces broader expectations for patient safety, public engagement, and professionalism.
• Pharmacy (U.S.): The Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) has published the ACPE Standards 2025 which reduce the number of accreditation standards from 25 to seven, emphasizing outcomes, quality improvement, and integration of EPAs as part of program-level assessment.
• Pharmacy (Global): The International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) produced the Global Competency Framework v3 in 2024, adapted primarily for pharmacists in Southeast Asia.
• Veterinary Medicine (North America): The CBVE 2.0 framework, released in 2023 by the American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges (AAVMC), refines 32 core competencies and introduces clearer milestone language and an assessment toolkit.
• Veterinary Medicine (Global): The World Veterinary Association (WVA) adopted the revised Day-One Competencies in March 2024, establishing updated minimum expectations for new graduates internationally.
• Physician Assistant (U.S.): The Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant (ARC-PA) released it's 6th Edition Standards, effective September 2025, introducing targeted updates such as telehealth instruction, wellness content, and clarified faculty roles that aim to improve program delivery while maintaining a strong foundation in outcomes-based education.
• Medicine (Canada): The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (RCPSC) has a new draft of CanMEDS currently under review, proposing updates that include new domains such as data-informed medicine, social justice, and professional adaptability.
• Medicine (U.K.): The General Medical Council (GMC) published the Outcomes for Graduates and its alignment with the national Medical Licensing Assessment (MLA) is now fully in effect for all final year students as of the 2024-25 academic year.

Shared Themes in Recent Revisions

Despite international differences, as well as differences within various health professions in general, several patterns are emerging:

• Stronger emphasis on outcomes: Most new or revised frameworks ask programs to demonstrate that learners are achieving defined competencies, often through workplace-based assessments, milestone tracking, or entrustment decisions, rather than relying solely on time-in-training.
• Increased use of EPAs: Entrustable Professional Activities, initially developed in medical education, are now appearing in dental, pharmacy, physician assistant, and veterinary curricula to help bridge the gap between competencies and day-to-day clinical tasks.
• Expanding competency domains: Recent frameworks include greater attention to health equity, digital health literacy, interprofessional collaboration, and systems-based care, which reflect the evolving expectations of professional practice.
• Transparent development processes: Accrediting bodies are increasingly using open consultations, structured stakeholder engagement, and evidence-informed revisions when updating frameworks, giving programs more insight and more time to prepare for adoption.

Quick Reference Table

How Elentra Supports Programs Through Change

As competency frameworks evolve, institutions must ensure their systems can adapt to new language and to new ways of documenting and demonstrating student achievement. Elentra provides the tools to meet that need:

• Curriculum mapping: Map courses, learning events, assessments, and much more to multiple frameworks, including those for MD, DO, DVM, PharmD, DDS/DMD, and PA programs.
• Assessment and performance tracking: Use Elentra’s CBE module and dashboards along with built-in assessment tools to gather and report on learner progress over time.
• Accreditation-aligned reporting: Export reports and analytics that match accreditor language and expectations, whether from LCME, COCA, ACPE, CODA, ARC-PA, AAVMC, or others.
• Multi-program support: Manage multiple professions within a single system, with role-based access and program-specific configurations to maintain flexibility across colleges.

Key Take-Away

As more accrediting bodies update their expectations, competency frameworks are becoming clearer, broader in scope, and more integrated with assessment and quality improvement practices. While not all institutions are moving toward full competency-based education, nearly all are expected to demonstrate that graduates achieve well-defined outcomes.

Elentra is designed to help programs meet these expectations by turning frameworks into action, assessments into insight, and evolving standards into manageable workflows. If you're interested in learning how Elentra can support your health professions program, we'd love to talk. For more insights, webinars, and educational strategies, follow Elentra on LinkedIn, Twitter / X, or contact us today.