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The current emphasis on providing quality undergraduate and postgraduate medical education has focused attention on the educational responsibilities of all doctors. There is a greater awareness of the need to train doctors as educators and courses have been set up to satisfy this need. Some courses, such as those on how to conduct appraisal, are speci®c to one task facing a medical educator. Other courses take a broader view and relate educational theory to practice. In this paper we describe an outcome-based approach in which competence in teaching is de®ned in terms of 12 learning outcomes. The framework provides a holistic approach to the roles of the teacher and supports the professionalism of teaching. Such a framework provides the basis for the development of a curriculum for teaching excellence. It helps to de®ne important competences for different categories of teachers, communicate the areas to be addressed in a course, identify gaps in course provision, evaluate courses, assist in staff planning and allow individuals to assess their personal learning needs. The framework is presented to encourage wider debate.

The Multi-Directional Reach Test is an inexpensive, reliable, and valid tool for measuring the limits of stability as derived by reach in four directions. Values obtained on relatively healthy community-dwelling older adults serve as norms for screening patient populations.

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Age-related adaptations during walking create a more stable walking pattern, which is less effective for forward progression and might be related to balance deficiencies. This study determined the relationship between walking stability and measures of balance in older adults. Seventeen older and 20 young adults performed the Berg Balance Test (BBT) and walked 10 m. Walking velocity (WV) and cadence were measured, and a gait-stability ratio (GSR) was calculated. Higher GSR indicated that a greater portion of the gait cycle was spent in double-limb support. Age-group comparisons established declines in BBT scores and WV and increases in GSR with age. Significant relationships were identified for BBT Item 12 (alternate stepping on a stool) with WV (r = .58, r 2 = .34) and GSR (r = −.74, r2 = .54). The correlation of BBT Item 12 with GSR was stronger than with WV (p < .05). Results indicated a strong relationship between increased gait stability and decreased balance for a dynamic weight-shifting task. Therefore, GSR is a better indicator of balance deficits during walking than is WV alone.