Evaluation in the continuum of medical education-the GAP report revisited. Thirteenth annual Baxter-Travenol lecture.

In 1971, the National Board of Medical Examiners appointed a Committee on Goals and Priorities, with a charge to provide advice, counsel, and recommendations relative to the Board's future directions. The report of the Committee, "Evaluation in the Continuum of Medical Education", was published as a monograph in 1973. It addressed itself to issues of evaluation, certification, licensure, and accreditation throughout the entire spectrum of medical education-undergraduate, graduate, and continuing. This paper, by the chairman of the Committee which authored the report, provides a review of: (a) the trends in medical eduction which formed the basis of the remmendations, (b) the recommendations themselves, (c) reactions to the report subsequent to its publication, and (d) actions taken by various groups relating to issues discussed in the report. It concludes with a discussion of anticipated changes in graduate medical education raises questions of the implications of these changes to the specialty of Aenesthesiology.