Institute of Medicine Core Competencies

Provide patient-centered care

Identify, respect, and care about patients' differences, values, preferences, and expressed needs; listen to, clearly inform, communicate with, and educate patients; share decision making and management; and continuously advocaate disease prevention, wellness, and promotion of healthy lifestyles, including a focus on population health.

Work in interdisciplinary teams

Cooperate, collaborate, communicate, and integrate care in teams to ensure that care is continuous and reliable.

Employ evidence-based practice

Integrate best research with clinical expertise and patient values for optimum care, and participate in learning and research activities to the extent feasible.

Apply quality improvement

Identify errors and hazards in care; understand and implement basic safety design principles, such as standardization and simplification; continually understand and measure quality of care in terms of structure, process, and outcomes in relation to patient and community needs; and design and test interventions to change processes and systems of care, with the objective of improving quality.

Utilize informatics

Communicate, manage knowledge, mitigate error, and support decision making using information technology.

--From Health Professions Education: A Bridge to Quality. Institute of Medicine, 2003.