Outcomes-oriented medical training: A critical curricular design consideration in developing 21st century health care professionals

The core competencies of medical schools and residencies have initiated a change in curricular design but have been limited in their execution of systems-based practice. The introduction of milestones and entrustable professional activities has emerged to enhance the current educational paradigm. Linking public health systemic approaches with evidence-based practices focused on population-level health care will affect patients more than current non-systems-based approaches. Curricular redesign, including population health-based strategies, public health competency, health care policy, and education linking the “determinants of health” to patient care, will better prepare future physicians to practice in the emerging paradigm of health care of the future. Thus, the University of North Texas Health Science Center Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine has launched a 3-phase model that addresses the specific foundational needs required to instantiate fundamental systems-based concepts in faculty, undergraduate medical curricula, and clinical practice.