Part of the ongoing ACGME Answers series, this post aims to clarify confusion regarding the ACGME's requirements for leaves of absence.

The theme of the 2021 ACGME Annual Educational Conference evokes not one but two key elements to what a conference experience in 2021 must provide: Meaning in Medicine: Mastering the Moment.

For more than two years, the COVID-19 pandemic fundamentally changed how every person on the globe works, plays, and interacts with each other. As what many hoped would be a few weeks of fear and uncertainty stretched into months and months, no one felt this stress more than health care professionals on the frontlines.

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.

ACGME President and CEO Thomas J. Nasca, MD, MACP recorded a message for all residents and fellows completing their education program this spring—in the midst of a global pandemic, caring for patients on the front lines.

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.

The ACGME has named Dr. Pilar Ortega as Vice President, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Dr. Ortega will support efforts to address harassment, discrimination, and other forms of mistreatment in the graduate medical education (GME) learning environment; improve retention and well-being for diverse resident and fellow physicians; and disseminate information on diversity, equity, and inclusion activities to the GME community.

2021 Parker J. Palmer Courage to Teach Awardee John F. McConville, MD is the internal medicine program director at the University of Chicago. He specializes in pulmonology and critical care.

The Back to Bedside initiative is designed to empower medical residents and fellows to generate innovative strategies that will allow them to engage on a deeper level with what is at the heart of medicine: their patients.