Read updates about the ACGME Cloud; prepare for the #ACGME2026 Call for Sessions; comment on proposed Program Requirements; and more.

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.

At the 2021 ACGME Annual Educational Conference, Athena Gonzalez and her team presented their poster, Strategies for Optimizing Fit Testing for Residents and the Evolving Role of the Program Coordinator, about their work in response to the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure residents were wearing properly sized and fitted masks and respirators, even as supplies changed.

Learn about the new Program Coordinator Handbook; the Requirements Archive; open positions on Review Committees; and more.

Learn about the Annual Educational Conference, an upcoming workshop about the Direct Observation Toolkit, entering Clinical Learning Environment Review (CLER) Program blackout dates, and more.

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.

2020 ACGME Debra L. Dooley GME Program Coordinator Excellence Awardee Diana Lynn Brucha, C-TAGME is the program manager for obstetrics and gynecology at UPMC Medical Education, UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

This post in our Resources to Support GME series focuses on ACGME tools, educational opportunities, and resources for institutional and program coordinators.

2023 Parker J. Palmer Courage to Teach Awardee Dr. Shashank Kraleti is the program director for family medicine, primary care and population health service line director, and vice-chair for clinical affairs at University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. 

2021 Parker J. Palmer Courage to Teach Awardee Julie B. McCausland, MD, MS is the program director for the transitional year program at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Medical Education in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She specializes in emergency medicine.