2021 John C. Gienapp Awardee Henry J. Schultz, MD, MACP works as a professor of medicine in primary care internal medicine at the Mayo Clinic School of Graduate Medical Education.

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.

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.

This is one in a series of project profiles of the ACGME’s Back to Bedside initiative, which empowers residents and fellows to develop innovations that foster meaning and joy in work and engage their patients on a deeper level.

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.

Nick Yaghmour is the Associate Director for Well-Being and Milestones Research at the ACGME. We asked him about his experience with the conference, his role, and what else he's working on.

Check out the ACGME's two new ACGME Equity Matters resources: the ACGME Equity Matters Resource Collection and the Language Equity in Health Care Toolkit; post open positions in graduate medical education on the ACGME Annual Educational Conference Job Board; and read news and updates from Review Committees.

Observe Suicide Prevention Month by reviewing the ACGME's resources for Sponsoring Institutions and programs that want to improve well-being of their communities; read the #ACGME2025 Program Guide; and register for the National Learning Community of Sponsoring Institutions and Clinical Learning Environments meeting in October. 

View the full session schedule for the 2025 ACGME Annual Educational Conference; apply to become an Appeals Panels member; listen to the latest episode of the Hot Topics in MedEd podcast; and more.