Canadian Excellence in Residency Accreditation (CanERA) is the system of residency accreditation used for all accreditation reviews in Canada. CanERA ensures top-tier training by reviewing residency programs with a focus on continuous improvement.

Institutional and Residency Program Accreditation is a voluntary process of quality assurance and quality improvement supported by the faculties (schools) of medicine at Canadian universities.

The purpose of the accreditation of residency programs by the College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC) Residency Accreditation Committee is twofold:

All family medicine residency programs in Canada are accredited by the CFPC on an eight-year cycle, with a focus on continuous quality improvement.

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National Standards of Accreditation 

The General Standards of Accreditation are a national set of standards maintained conjointly by the Canadian Residency Accreditation Consortium (CanRAC) comprised of the CFPC, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (RCPSC), and Collège des médecins du Québec (CMQ).
 

The CanERA Suite of General Standards

The conjoint accreditation process is built on rigorous, robust standards that set high and uniform expectations for the objective evaluation and continuous improvement of Canadian postgraduate medical education institutions and residency programs.
 

Residency Programs

The standards of accreditation for the core two-year and enhanced skills family medicine residency programs are set out in the Standards of Accreditation for Residency Programs in Family Medicine, often referred to as the “Red Book.”

The standards in the Red Book have been written to encompass the General Standards of Accreditation for Residency Programs along with additional family-medicine specific standards where appropriate; therefore, the Red Book does not need to be read in conjunction with the General Standards of Accreditation for Residency Programs.

The family medicine standards are structured into four sets to ensure clarity related to central program, site, and enhanced skills program-specific expectations. They aim to provide an interpretation of the General Standards of Accreditation for Residency Programs as they relate to the accreditation of programs in family medicine and ensure that these programs adequately prepare residents to meet the health care needs of their patient population(s) upon completion of training.