Linking competency-based education to clinical practice through Entrustable Professional Activities

Dr. ten Cate is a world-renown educator who created the concept of Entrustable Professional Activities (EPA's). He is a leading innovator in competency-based medical education assessment. Olle (Th.J.) ten Cate (1953) studied medicine at the University of Amsterdam and worked as an educational advisor from 1980 at the same medical school. In 1986, he completed a PhD dissertation on peer teaching in medical education. Between 1980 and 1999 he was closely involved with all of UofA's major preclinical and clinical curriculum reforms, educational research, program evaluation and educational development. In 1999 he was appointed full professor of Medical Education at Utrecht University. From 1999 until 2005 he was associate Dean of Education at University Medical Centre Utrecht. Since 2005 he leads the Centre for Research and Development of Education at UMCU. His research interests include vertical integration in the undergraduate medical education, peer teaching and competency-based postgraduate medical education. In 2006 he was elected president of the Netherlands Association for Medical Education. Since 2010 he has an attachment as a regular visiting professor of medical education at University of California San Francisco, and an appointment as adjunct full professor there since April 2012.
The Office of Postgraduate Medical Education and the Division of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Toronto were honoured to have Dr. ten Cate visit the University of Toronto in June, 2012. The videos below, filmed with permission of Dr. ten Cate, are a recap of his lectures provided during his two-day visit.