The Accreditation Standards

General Standards

The foundation of the conjoint accreditation process is built on rigorous, robust standards that set high and uniform expectations for the objective evaluation and continuous improvement of Canadian institutions and residency programs.

The CanERA suite of general standards consists of the:

Discipline-Specific Standards of Accreditation

In addition to the CanERA general standards, each discipline also has accreditation expectations specific to the discipline that residency programs must comply with. The standards of accreditation for each discipline build upon and complement the General Standards of Accreditation for Residency Programs. They provide additional discipline-specific expectations regarding educational experiences and content, assessment, and resources.

Discipline-specific standards for family medicine

The standards of accreditation for the core two-year and enhanced skills family medicine residency programs are set out in the Standards of Accreditation for Residency Programs in Family Medicine, often referred to as the “Red Book”. The Red Book is an integrated document including both those expectations specific to family medicine residency programs1, as well as those expectations set out in the General Standards of Accreditation for Residency Programs, applicable to all residency programs; as such, the Red Book does not need to be read in conjunction with the General Standards of Accreditation for Residency Programs.

Access the Standards of Accreditation for Residency Programs in Family Medicine (“Red Book”)

Discipline-specific standards of accreditation for Royal College disciplines2

For each Royal College discipline there is a document outlining additional discipline-specific expectations, referred to as the standards of accreditation for the discipline (e.g. Standards of Accreditation for Residency Programs in Anatomical Pathology). The standards of accreditation for each of these disciplines must be read in conjunction with the General Standards of Accreditation for Residency Programs, with the exception of the standards of accreditation for Surgical Foundations and Clinician Investigator Programs.

Access the Royal College discipline-specific standards of accreditation

Standards Organization Framework

Level Description
Domain Domains, defined by the Future of Medical Education in Canada-Postgraduate (FMEC-PG) Accreditation Implementation Committee, introduce common organizational terminology to facilitate alignment of accreditation standards across the medical education continuum.
Standard The overarching outcome to be achieved through the fulfillment of the associated requirements.
Element A category of the requirements associated with the overarching standard.
Requirement A measurable component of a standard.

A specific expectation used to evaluate compliance with a requirement (i.e. to demonstrate that the requirement is in place).
Mandatory & Exemplary Indicators Mandatory indicators must be met to achieve full compliance with a requirement. Exemplary indicators provide objectives beyond the mandatory expectations and may be used to introduce indicators that will become mandatory over time.

Indicators may have one or more sources of evidence, not all of which will be collected through the onsite portion of the accreditation visit (e.g., evidence may be collected via the institution/program profile in CanAMS.)

Version Applicability

Institutions and their residency programs are held to the general and discipline-specific accreditation standards in place one year in advance of the relevant accreditation activity (i.e., regular accreditation review, external review, action plan outcomes report).

1 Family medicine residency programs includes enhanced skills programs

2 While referred to here as “Royal College disciplines”, please note that in the province of Quebec, the Royal College and CMQ conjointly accredit residency programs in disciplines recognized by the CMQ.