NEW! Conference Registration is Open!
Join the ACGME for the 2021 Annual Educational Conference taking place virtually February 24-26, 2021. The conference theme, Meaning in Medicine: Mastering the Moment, highlights how the graduate medical education (GME) community is rising to meet the challenge of a truly unprecedented time for the health of the world. At the ACGME’s biggest learning and networking event, attendees will spend three days uniting with new and old colleagues, discovering and exchanging ideas, and discussing academic medicine’s biggest challenges and greatest achievements.
Engage with more than 250 speakers presenting more than 100 thought-provoking sessions, including half-day pre-conferences. Topics include: ACGME accreditation and initiatives; well-being; innovations in the clinical learning environment; diversity, equity, and inclusion; faculty and professional development; COVID-19; crisis management; and many others.
View the full conference schedule and learn more about #ACGME2021!
Exhibitor, Sponsor, and Job Recruiter Registration Open
Apply today for virtual booth space in the Exhibit Hall, or for one of several exciting sponsorship opportunities at the ACGME Annual Educational Conference February 24-26, 2021. The ACGME is also offering a space for institutions to post open positions in the Career Center. Recruiters can post up to 10 job postings, which will be uploaded into a searchable database that attendees can access up to three months after the conference.
Learn More about Exhibits and Sponsorships
Reserve a Booth or Sponsorship
Apply by January 22, 2021
Email questions to exhibitor@acgme.org.
NEW! Coming Soon: CLER COVID-19 Site Visits
For the past several months, the CLER Program has been developing a special site visit to identify and understand areas where the experience with COVID-19 may have a sustained impact on the clinical learning environment. The goal is to inform executive clinical learning environment and graduate medical education (GME) leaders as they examine and adapt their systems to optimize learning and patient care. The visits will also provide the ACGME with timely information on new needs of Sponsoring Institutions and their clinical learning environments resulting from these adaptations. On October 19, 2020 the CLER team will begin field testing the visits in preparation for launch in January 2021. Importantly, the CLER Program will avoid reaching out to any Sponsoring Institution while it has "Emergency Category" status.
A brief overview of this new CLER site visit was presented as part of the ACGME's weekly national DIO calls. A webinar with more detail is being planned for late November/early December 2020. Continue to read ACGME communications for details.
For information on scheduling notices and blackout weeks, email CLER@acgme.org.
Access the ACGME's COVID-19 Section
Visit the COVID-19 section of the ACGME website for access to a range of materials, including ACGME Guidance Statements, Frequently Asked Questions, Letters to the Specialty Communities, institutional and well-being resources, and more.
NEW! Milestones 2.0 Volunteers Needed
The ACGME is assembling Work Groups to review the current Milestones and determine what, if any, changes need to be made, by specialty. Members of the GME community are invited to serve on these Work Groups.
Nominees must be proficient in one or more of the Competencies and be familiar with the Milestones and need not be physicians. Work Group members will be selected based on multiple criteria, including level of expertise, specialty and regional diversity, and need.
Deadline: November 8, 2020
Emergency Medical Services
Medical Toxicology
Pediatric Emergency Medicine
Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine
NEW! Milestones Mid-Year Reporting Opens October 26
The reporting window will be open Monday, October 26, 2020 through Thursday, January 14, 2021. Milestones assessments can be submitted via the ACGME's Accreditation Data System (ADS) at any point during this time. A list of specialties that have transitioned to Milestones 2.0 can be found on the Milestones page.
For technical assistance, email ADS@acgme.org.
For content questions, email milestones@acgme.org.
NEW! Milestones Guidebook for Residents and Fellows
An updated Milestones Guidebook for Residents and Fellows, as well as an accompanying presentation and Milestones 2.0 Guide Sheet for Residents and Fellows, are now available. These resources were written by residents and fellows for residents and fellows, and are available on the ACGME Residents and Fellows page. They are designed to facilitate discussions about the Milestones, assessment, and feedback during GME.
Participate in Milestones 2.0 Focus Group for Quality Assurance
The ACGME has established a quality assurance program as a part of the Milestones 2.0 implementation process and is looking for 20 volunteers in each of the following specialties and subspecialties to participate in this process:
Allergy and Immunology
Cardiovascular Disease
Clinical Biochemical Genetics
Complex General Surgical Oncology
Dermatology
Family Medicine
Interventional Radiology – Independent
Interventional Radiology – Integrated
Laboratory Genetics and Genomics
Medical Genetics and Genomics
Ophthalmology
Radiology – Diagnostic
Sleep Medicine
Surgery
Urology
Volunteers should be actively involved in program leadership or a member of the Clinical Competency Committee. Over the next few years, the ACGME will collect feedback about the new Milestones through a combination of focus groups and surveys. Focus groups will be held at annual program director meetings, and surveys will be completed electronically or by phone. Surveys will be brief and should take less than five minutes to complete.
Email questions to milestones@acgme.org.
ACGME Board of Directors: Actions taken at the September Board Meeting
At its September 2020 meeting, the ACGME Board of Directors approved the following:
Focused revision to Program Requirements for Graduate Medical Education in Nuclear Medicine, effective July 1, 2021. The Requirements are available under the “Future Effective Date” heading on the Program Requirements and FAQs and Applications page of the Nuclear Medicine section of the ACGME website.
Focused revision to Program Requirements for Graduate Medical Education in Brain Injury Medicine, effective July 1, 2021. The Requirements are available under the “Future Effective Date” heading on the Program Requirements and FAQs and Applications page of the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Neurology, and Psychiatry sections of the ACGME website.
Focused revision to Program Requirements for Graduate Medical Education in Diagnostic Radiology, Interventional Radiology, and Neuroradiology, effective July 1, 2021. The Requirements are available under the “Future Effective Date” heading on the Program Requirements and FAQs and Applications page of the Radiology section of the ACGME website.
Focused revision to Osteopathic Recognition Requirements, effective July 1, 2021. The Requirements are available under the “Future Effective Date” heading on the Osteopathic Recognition section of the ACGME website.
Email Address for General Accreditation Questions
The ACGME has created a new email address for members of the graduate medical education (GME) community who need to ask questions that apply generally, as opposed to specific questions about institutional accreditation or the accreditation of a particular specialty or subspecialty.
Direct general questions to: accreditation@acgme.org
To contact staff about institutional accreditation, email irc@acgme.org. For contact information by specialty, visit the Specialties page and select the appropriate specialty.
Assessment Resources Available
The ACGME has created two new evidence-based tools to help the graduate medical education (GME) community assess resident and fellow clinical performance in a variety of clinical settings.
Direct Observation of Clinical Care (DOCC) App
The DOCC app is a tool for faculty members and other evaluators to do on-the-spot or scheduled direct observation assessments of residents and fellows performing five clinical activities in which they are expected to achieve competence: performing a history and physical exam; effective clinical reasoning; informed decision making; breaking bad news; and safe hand-offs. The DOCC app is designed as an open-access tool that Sponsoring Institutions and programs can implement locally through integration with a program’s database, as well as download from the App Store for iPhone and GooglePlay for Android.
Teamwork Effectiveness Assessment Module (TEAM)
TEAM is a vehicle for collecting multisource feedback on residents' and fellows' professionalism, interpersonal and communication skills, and competence in interprofessional teamwork and aspects of systems-based practice. Originally developed by the American Board of Internal Medicine, the ACGME has adapted its use for individual residents/fellows to gather and interpret feedback from the interprofessional patient care teams with which they work.
Data entered into TEAM is kept secure and confidential, and is accessible only to individual residents, fellows, faculty members, and program users. None of the information entered is used for accreditation purposes.
Learn more about these resources and access them here. Additional resources for the Milestones, including a series of recently updated guidebooks, are available here.
NEW! Review Committee News and Notices: Allergy and Immunology
The Review Committee will host an educational webinar for program directors, coordinators, and faculty members on Monday, November 2 from 11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. Central.
Participants will learn about:
- FTE support program requirements for program directors, core faculty members and coordinators
- Recommendations for managing programs during the COVID-19 pandemic and the role of the ACGME during the pandemic
- Understanding the allergy and immunology procedure logs
- Update on Milestones 2.0
The webinar will be recorded and available in Learn at ACGME within a week of the live presentation.
NEW! Review Committee News and Notices: Dermatology
An “Update to Association of Professors of Dermatology 2020” has been added to the Documents and Resources page in the Dermatology section of the ACGME website.
Email questions to eanthony@acgme.org.
NEW! Review Committee News and Notices: Radiology - Required Procedure Counts in Interventional Radiology Update
Currently in interventional radiology, one procedure per patient encounter is allowed to count toward the 1,000 required procedures in interventional radiology (PR IV.B.1.b).(2).(f).(i)). At its recent meeting, the Review Committee determined there are scenarios when exceptions to this interpretation are acceptable, and it will adopt the following modification:
- Updated Rule: Residents may count two unrelated procedures during the same patient encounter.
- Example 1: The resident places a gastrostomy-tube and an IVC filter during a single patient encounter. In this scenario, the resident can count both the G-tube and the inferior vena cava filter as two separate procedures on the same patient.
- Example 2: The resident performs an aortogram, selective angiogram, super selective angiogram, angioplasty, and stent placement and a liver biopsy during a single patient encounter. The most complex or important vascular procedure and the liver biopsy are eligible to be counted separately.
- Logging: Residents must enter both procedures into the ACGME Case Logs separately, as two independent entries, with the same patient data and same date of service.
- Limits: No more than two procedures may be counted per patient encounter.
NEW! Review Committee News and Notices: Radiology - New Case Log Model Coming Soon
A new Case Log model for diagnostic and interventional radiology is being developed. The new format will allow for better tracking of cases, as well as opportunities to track procedures and CPT codes not currently required. The release is planned for early January 2021.
More information and tutorials will be coming soon.
NEW! Review Committee News and Notices: Radiology - ESIR Application Guidelines Updated
Updates for early specialization in interventional radiology (ESIR) require a more specific description of the ESIR resident selection process. The guidelines can be found on the Documents and Resources page of the Radiology section of the ACGME website.
NEW! Review Committee News and Notices: Urology
There are several updates to the Case Log System for urology residents.
ACGME Case Log information now reflects the new urology minimums for the index categories. These new minimums will be used beginning with the 2021 graduates. A document with these updates is available on the Documents and Resources page of the Urology section of the ACGME website.
Additionally, residents should now record the use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) fusion as part of a prostate biopsy. When MRI fusion is used, residents should choose the version of CPT code 55700 that indicates “TRUS/prostate biopsy with fusion.” Fusion biopsy numbers will be tracked, but there is not a set minimum.
Soon, robotic cases will be recorded by checking a "Robotic" checkbox on the individual CPT code rather than the case entry page, which will give residents credit towards the robotic index category minimum. This change will improve the accuracy of the resident robotic experience documented in the Case Log System. The “Logging Robotic Procedures” section has been updated to reflect this change.
Email questions to Executive Director Kathleen Quinn-Leering.
Career Opportunities
The ACGME currently has the following open positions:
Executive Director, Surgical Accreditation
Medical Writer, CLER
Payroll and HR Coordinator
Click on the position linked above for details and to complete an application.