Systems-Based Practice and Anesthesiology Residency: Report from the SEA Task Force on the ACGME Core Competencies.

Background: The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education requires that residents be educated in six general core competencies, but has relied on individual specialties to develop their own definitions, teaching methods and evaluative tools. The Society for Education in Anesthesia took the initiative by organizing a two-day conference to accomplish these goals.

Methods: Facilitated by four anesthesia educators, anesthesiologists from diverse programs and backgrounds employed open systems theory to better define System-Based Practice and outline key examples specific for anesthesiology.

Results: Pre-operative assessment, intraoperative management, inter-disciplinary pain management team, and healthcare facility interactions were selected as forums where observable activities, educational goals and practical assessment tools universal enough to be applicable to most anesthesiology training programs can be developed.

Conclusions: The application of open systems theory in the setting of small focus groups proved successful by producing definitions, teaching methods and evaluative tools for SBP. The diversity of the groups should allow the products to have flexibility and widespread use.