This week's e-Communication includes information on the designated institutional official (DIO) approval of program Annual Updates; improvements to the Direct Observation of Clinical Care (DOCC) app, Review and Comment, and calls for resident and public Review and Recognition Committee members.

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.

Welcome to the new academic year! As thousands of new residents begin their journey toward independent practice this month, we asked Jeff Dewey, MD, former resident member of the Review Committee for Neurology, to reflect on his experiences in residency and share lessons he learned.

Linda B. Andrews, MD joined the ACGME leadership team in February 2019 as the new Senior Vice President, Field Activities. We chatted with Dr. Andrews to learn more about her background and her vision for Field Activities at the ACGME.

As a new academic year approaches, it is important to continue breaking the silence surrounding clinician burnout. During a highly emotional and personal panel discussion at the 2019 ACGME Annual Educational Conference in March, Dr. Nasca and colleagues from other national organizations in medicine discussed how burnout and self-doubt touched their lives. Influenced by those experiences and others throughout his career, Dr. Nasca has positioned the ACGME to help lead the charge to address physician well-being.

Associate Program Director Kimberly Collins, MD of Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital in Saint Petersburg, Florida set out to see how simulating conversations about social determinants of health (as opposed to in-class learning or immersion-based training) affected a resident’s or fellow’s ability to broach and explore these complex, often sensitive, subjects with patients and their parents. Her results are recorded in her poster: Improving Resident Comfort with Discussing Social Determinants of Health through Simulation.

John V. Pamula, MD, FACP, led a quality improvement project focused on reducing burnout and increasing well-being among its residents. His poster, Multipronged Strategies to Improve Wellbeing and Work-Life Balance of Residents, was presented at the 2019 Annual Educational Conference, Engaging Each Other: Rediscovering Meaning in Medicine.

Training physicians in the science of compassion not only makes for more caring physicians, it improves their abilities as clinicians and may help prevent burnout, said Dominic O. Vachon, MDiv, PhD during his Baldwin Seminar Series presentation at the ACGME offices May 22, 2019.

As part of its commitment to staff and community well-being, the ACGME is partnering with Hope For The Day, a Chicago-based non-profit organization dedicated to mental health support and suicide prevention.