We’re at the mid-way point in the five-year transition to a single GME accreditation system—and this is our third pre-conference for osteopathic residency and fellowship programs. A lot has happened in the last few years, and we’re proud of our expanding family—not just on the program side, but also on the accreditation and governance side.

As the current chair of the ACGME Board of Directors, Rowen Zetterman, MD, filled several important roles at this year’s Annual Educational Conference, presenting awards and introducing Dr. Nasca for his President and CEO Address among them. We caught up with Dr. Zetterman in between his activities to learn a little more about his experience the last few years with the ACGME and, in particular, at the Annual Educational Conference.

Dr. Hedy Wald of Boston Children’s Hospital-Harvard Medical School and the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University was a first-time ACGME Annual Educational Conference attendee as a result of acceptance of her poster, Faculty Videos – An Innovation within Residency Resilience Skills Programs at Two Institutions, for presentation at the Poster Session. An avid social networker, she introduced herself to us at the Twitter Board on Thursday morning before the pre-conferences, and we continued the conversation throughout and after the conference. We asked Dr. Wald about her experience as a poster presenter and first-time attendee of our conference.

If you were working in GME back in the 80s, maybe you attended one of the ACGME’s early forerunners of the Annual Educational Conference.

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.

For the first time since 2012, the ACGME today presented the John C. Gienapp Distinguished Service Award to Timothy C. Flynn, MD, FACS. The award is named for Dr. John Gienapp, who was the ACGME’s Executive Director for 19 years. Dr. Gienapp made several important contributions to GME and ACGME accreditation, and when he retired this award was established in his honor to recognize those who, like himself, dedicated themselves to a career in graduate medical education and made outstanding contributions to residency education and ACGME activities in a variety of ways.

This week's e-Communication includes information on ACGME Equity Matters^TM, Review and Comment, the Rural Track Designation Program, and Milestones Quality Assurance.

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 e-Communication includes information on the Annual Educational Conference Calls for Sessions, information on direct supervision using telecommunications technology, and Review and Comment opportunities. 

Karen J. Nichols, DO, MA, MACOI, FACP, CS-F is the current Chair of the ACGME Board of Directors, having assumed this role in September 2020. We asked Dr. Nichols to talk about her professional experience, her role, and her experience with the ACGME’s first-ever virtual Annual Educational Conference.