“Milestones” has been a part of the ACGME vocabulary for nearly 17 years now. In the final session of the 2018 Annual Educational Conference, Eric Holmboe, MD, MACP, FRCP, senior vice president, Milestone Development and Evaluation, kicked off a discussion about the Milestones today and the Milestones to come.

In one of the final sessions at the 2018 Annual Educational Conference on Sunday, March 4, a panel of ACGME executives, deans, a patient safety expert, and a resident spoke to the crowd about how medicine is changing and graduate medical education may need to evolve to serve patients well into the 21^st century.

ACGME President and CEO Dr. Nasca kicked off his Saturday morning session at the Annual Educational Conference with some “non-rhetorical” questions: Can anyone predict what the health care system will look like in 2035? Can anyone predict how long your residents will practice? 40 years?

After stumping the room, he went on to explain that it is our job is to prepare residents to practice in the future—not to arm them with practices, skills, and knowledge of the present. We want our residents to be prepared not just for 2018 but for 2035—and beyond.

Jamie Dow, EdM, is assistant director for resident education and training at the University of Florida. Her poster, Mindfulness in Neurosurgery: Improving Neurosurgeon Wellness in Training and Beyond (with co-authors W. Christopher Fox, MD, Associate Program Director, University of Florida, and Gregory Murad, MD, Program Director, University of Florida), looked at wellness in neurosurgery, which Dow says “has traditionally been considered an oxymoron.” However, as priorities among neurological surgery residents evolve and the effects of physician burnout are increasingly recognized across specialties, life balance and overall well-being have become areas of emphasis and an opportunity for program improvement.

Andrea Rio’s name – or maybe her e-mail address – is probably very familiar to anyone who’s ever attended any ACGME educational program. Her integral role in the Annual Educational Conference, however, is much more than processing registrations and payments and making sure badges print correctly! As a key member of the ACGME’s Educational Activities team, she is central to the growth and success of the conference. We asked her to share a bit more about what she does and what the conference experience is like for her behind the scenes.

Registration for the 2019 Annual Educational Conference opens today! We are so excited to come together again as a community – the graduate medical education community – to share ideas and research, to network, to learn, to teach, to invigorate and inspire innovation, and to hear about all the ways that physician educators and physicians in training and the coordinators and administrators and leaders in their programs and institutions find Meaning in Medicine.

This week's edition of the e-Communication includes information on #ThankaResidentDay; the Annual Educational Conference; the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Leadership Forum; ACGME Award nominations, and more.

Debra L. Dooley came to the ACGME 22 years ago, initially in an administrative role with the Review Committee for Internal Medicine. She retires today, after 10.5 years as the Director of Educational Activities, where she leads the team responsible for producing the ACGME’s educational programming, and most notably the Annual Educational Conference. We spent some time with her before she left, discussing her career, her mentors, her legacy, and the renaming of the Debra L. Dooley Program Coordinator Excellence Award.

With overdose as the leading cause of death for Americans under 50, it is imperative that the nation—including the entire medical community—take responsibility for its role in creating this epidemic and identify and enact strategies that can address it. This is Dr. Leana Wen’s position. The former Baltimore Health Commissioner and current president of Planned Parenthood spoke about the steps she and the City of Baltimore took to address opioid addiction in the community, and what role she sees physicians playing in solving this problem that is devastating the nation.