Training for Adaptive Expertise: Why, What, and How

Abstract

Background: Routine expertise is the efficient use of mastered skills at a high level of competency in familiar situations.

Problem: Novel case variation and continuous scientific advances preclude reliance on routine expertise alone.

Solution: Medical training programs must prepare learners to solve unfamiliar problems by cultivating adaptive expertise. Adaptive expertise is the ability to transfer existing knowledge to innovate a solution for an unfamiliar problem.