Twenty Core Entrustable professional activities for Hematology residency training: a consensus proposition Open Access

• Identifying competencies are a critical step for implementing competency-based medical education (CBME) in hematology residency programs.

• EPAs specifically designed for hematology residency programs facilitate the implementation of CBME in daily educational practice.

Entrustable professional activities (EPAs) have gained force as a strategy to translate the competency-based medical education (CBME) framework into daily assessment practice. Here we present a list of twenty core EPAs validated by consensus-based methods. First, a list of essential competencies for hematology training was established combining literature review, analysis of legal framework, and prior experience and training in medical education. This list was then validated by a panel of hematologists, and used to prepare a provisional list of 23 EPAs according to established guidelines for EPA development. After EPAs were validated by a modified Delphi strategy, in two rounds, by a larger panel of hematologists. The initial validation process involved ten hematologists and yielded a list of 39 sub-competencies, distributed in six major domains: patient care; medical knowledge; progressive learning and professional development; communication; ethics and professionalism; and health systems management. EPAs derived from this list were then validated through a modified Delphi process in two rounds. The twenty validated EPAs were grouped into three main categories: “Caring for the Hematological Patient”, “Communication and Teamwork”, and “Diagnostic Support”, and included a list of “alert signs” developed to facilitate the early identification of trainees requiring extra educational support. Using an interactive methodology with a diverse panel of hematologists we were able to establish two potentially powerful tools for hematology training that can be used or adapted for use in hematology and transfusion medicine residency programs aiming to implement CBME framework into their educational practices.