Health provider shortage areas, comprised of urban and rural regions with high populations of people struggling with multi-morbidity and poverty, often have a challenge with physician recruitment. Dr. Meaghan Ruddy, vice president for Academic Affairs and director of Medical Education for The Wright Center for GME in Scranton, Pennsylvania, describes how a teaching health center family medicine program operationalized as a graduate medical education safety-net consortium.

Dr. Carol A. Bernstein is the 2019 winner of the John C. Gienapp Award and the first ever women to be honored with the award--on International Woman's Day to boot! Dr. Bernstein is Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology at New York University. She has spent her entire career engaged in the education and mentorship of the next generation of physicians in addition to maintaining a clinical practice in general psychiatry at the New York University School of Medicine.

Dr. Chinelo Okigbo is a PGY-3 Internal Medicine Chief Resident at AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center in New Jersey. She attended the 2019 ACGME Annual Educational Conference as part of the Back to Bedside initiative. As a resident and first-time Annual Educational Conference attendee, we asked her to share her impressions based on her experience.

On behalf of the ACGME, we welcome those of you coming to the Annual Educational Conference from outside the US, and especially those of you attending for the first time. Below are some brief thoughts to help you navigate the conference and the program.

In an effort to emphasize the Engaging Each Other portion of the conference theme, the Educational Activities team, responsible for putting the conference together under the leadership of Timothy P. Brigham, MDiv, PhD, has added a few exciting new items to this year’s event.

Register for the 2026 ACGME Annual Educational Conference; participate in a survey about the Common Program Requirements; read this week's Journal of Graduate Medical Education's Articles of the Week.

Take the ACGME Cloud and ADS survey, view information about survey data and reports, and comment on the proposed Nutrition Requirements.

Learn about the ACGME Cloud | Analytics – Analytics Explorer tool; participate in ACGME LINC; answer a survey about the major revision of the Common Program Requirements; and more.

Register for the 2026 ACGME Annual Educational Conference; apply to serve as an Appeals Panel member; sign up for faculty development workshops; and more.