Dr. Jason R. Frank continues his contributions at the MCC as Director, Competency-Based Assessment

The Medical Council of Canada (MCC) is pleased to announce that Dr. Jason R. Frank has been named to the role of Director, Competency-Based Assessment. The part-time position will see him continuing to lead the MCC’s workplace-based assessment (WBA) program, a mandate he has held since stepping into the role of senior medical advisor in October 2024.

A renowned physician, medical educator, and leading expert in competency-based medical education (CBME), Dr. Frank is a professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Medicine and the founding director of the University’s Centre for Innovation in Medical Education (CiMED). He is also an attending physician at the Ottawa Hospital. Internationally recognized for his work on the CanMEDS project, a physician competency framework, he is regarded as one of the pioneers of CBME. He is the founder and chair of the International CBME Collaborators Consortium and the Competence by Design initiative. He previously served as the director of specialty education, strategy and standards in the Office of Specialty Education at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. 

Under Dr. Frank’s leadership, the MCC is working to establish its WBA program to better assist medical regulatory authorities and Practice-Ready Assessment programs as part of supporting accelerated pathways to licensure. This initiative is focused on developing standardized and centralized solutions for conducting valid and defensible WBA of internationally trained physicians in authentic professional environments. Dr. Frank’s continued work with the MCC will include expanding current activities to develop a comprehensive WBA program that can be implemented across Canada. He is collaborating with assessment experts, interested parties, and the MCC team to ensure that the new WBA program framework and roadmap are robust, evidence-based, and serve the needs of the Canadian health care system.