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Shared Canadian Curriculum in Family Medicine
Description/achievement of initiative

The Shared Canadian Curriculum in Family Medicine (SHARC-FM) is an open educational resource program based in Canada. Anchored in curricular objectives determined through research, SHARC-FM provides a growing matrix of peer-reviewed educational resources. All are fully open-access and free of charge. While focused on Canadian medical students training in family medicine, many of the resources will be helpful in developing countries. The resources are available on our website, sharcfm.ca. The manuscript describing the development of the project can be found at http://www.cfp.ca/content/cfp/63/4/e223.full.pdf.

Implementation methodologies

Educators meet annually to refine the topics and objectives, and to provide strategic guidance. The editorial board has the authority to make strategic and operational decisions. Educators and students develop learning resources in alignment with the objectives of SHARC-FM. These are subject to peer review. When items fully meet the concerns of reviewers, they are published on our website as open educational resources (OERs).

Arrangements for Capacity-Building and Technology Transfer

Most of the capacity needed is faculty administration, and faculty and student content development time. While this can change from time to time, we have been able to build a variety of resources. We deliberately chose an open educational resource model early on so that any student or teacher anywhere around the world could use our materials free of charge. We will continue to use this OER model for the distribution of our growing resources. Most of our resources are in pdf form, enabling easy downloading and/or printing.

Coordination mechanisms/governance structure

SHARC-FM is governed by an Editorial board. On the board are the lead editor, four other family medicine educators, and one medical student representative. SHARC-FM reports to both the Canadian Undergraduate Family Medicine Directors (CUFMED) and the College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC). The members of the board are appointed jointly by CUFMED and the CFPC, with the exception of the medical student who is elected by their colleagues within the Section of Medical Students of the CFPC.

Partner(s)

Canadian Undergraduate Family Medicine Directors (CUFMED) College of Family Physicians of Canada University of Calgary
Progress reports
Goal 3
3.c - Substantially increase health financing and the recruitment, development, training and retention of the health workforce in developing countries, especially in least developed countries and small island developing States
06/2016
expanded open access educational resources for teaching and learning in family medicine
06/2017
open access educational resources (point of care tools, teaching cases, occasional virtual patient cases and youtube videos)
Financing (in USD)
15,000 USD
Other, please specify
annual funding noted above is from the College of Family Physicians of Canada
In-kind contribution
e-learning development support from the University of Calgary
Staff / Technical expertise
Faculty members from all seventeen Canadian medical schools contributing to this project.

Basic information
Time-frame: November 2006 - November 2026
Website
Partners
Canadian Undergraduate Family Medicine Directors (CUFMED) College of Family Physicians of Canada University of Calgary
Countries
Contact information
David Keegan, Associate Professor, Family Medicine; Associate Dean, Faculty Development, dkeegan@ucalgary.ca
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