The Information by Discipline (IBD) pages are the Royal College’s central source for current discipline-specific standards, competencies and assessment requirements. IBD is designed to help trainees, program leaders, educators, exam committees and partners quickly find the most up-to-date education standards documents for each primary specialty, subspecialty and Area of Focused Competence (AFC) discipline. Documents for Special Programs and Fundamentals are also included on IBD.
Specialty and AFC standards documents define the scope, expectations, and structure of training within each discipline. These documents support learners, programs, and regulators by clearly outlining the requirements for independent practice.
Specialty standards typically include
Archived versions of specialty standards are available through the Previous versions link for each discipline.
AFC standards define focused training and competencies that build upon and complement entry route experiences and include
For superseded content that is not accessible on this website, please contact documents@royalcollege.ca
CanMEDS implementation schedule (2027 to 2032): Beginning in 2027, specialties will transition to a six-year revision cycle that will include aligning the discipline-specific standards to the new CanMEDS Framework. Sequencing updates to the phased implementation schedule will be provided on a quarterly basis.
This coordinated cycle helps clarify
About the CanMEDS Project: The CanMEDS Framework is being updated to reflect changes in societal needs and advances in medicine and technology that have developed since its last revision. It was updated in 2005 and 2015, with the next revision is due to be launched in fall 2026.