In the early 1990s, Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, with support from the charitable institution Associated Medical Services, leveraged the Educating Future Physicians for Ontario project to develop a competency framework for specialist physicians. The result, the CanMEDS Framework, was formally approved by the Royal College in 1996.

Key Historical Points
  • Commissioned in 1990 by physicians to enhance teaching and practice
  • Adopted first in 1996, updated in 2005 and again in 2015
  • Dozens of countries on five continents now use CanMEDS, in medicine and other health care professions.
More information on the history of CanMEDS