Physician competence: a perspective from the practicing cardiologist.

All cardiologists strive to be "competent" physicians. It is important for both the certifying bodies and our patients to know that we are highly competent in our practice of cardiovascular disease. This is especially true in the current era, with its knowledge explosion and exponential growth in diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. However, physician competence has never been clearly defined, much less measured. The American Board of Medical Subspecialties and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) have defined six domains for physician competence, including medical knowledge, patient care, communication, practice-based learning, system-based practice, and interpersonal relationships-terminology that has remained unclear to practicing cardiologists. This paper presents a simplistic view of what a cardiologist must achieve to be considered a competent physician and discuss the role of professional societies and academic medical centers in facilitating the attainment and documentation of competence for all of us.