• Michael D Abràmoff, James C Folk, Andrew G Lee, Hilary A Beaver, H Culver Boldt, and University of Iowa Department of Ophthalmology Task Force on the ACGME Competencies.
• Department of Ophthalmology, University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics, Iowa City, Iowa, USA.
• Ophthal Surg Las Im. 2008 Jul 1; 39 (4): 270-80.

Background And ObjectiveThe Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education has mandated that residency programs teach and assess six specific competencies (ie, medical knowledge, patient care, communication and interpersonal skills, professionalism, practice-based learning, and systems-based learning). To the authors' knowledge, there is no standardized and widely used curriculum for teaching and assessing resident competencies in retinal lasers.MethodsThe pertinent literature on resident education in retinal lasers is reviewed and specific "good practices" for teaching and assessing laser competency are presented.ResultsDevelopment and deployment of educational tools that teach and assess laser competency simultaneously; are reliable, reproducible, and valid; have low faculty time burden; and are affordable, generalizable, and fair are recommended.ConclusionRetinal laser competency can be taught and assessed in ophthalmology residency training programs. Future research will be needed to provide evidence that these teaching and assessment tools produce improved educational and patient outcomes and provide verifiable, reliable, and valid evidence of resident competence in retinal lasers.

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