This week's e-Communication includes the names of the 2024-2025 Back to Bedside grant recipients; Review and Comment; Accreditation Data System (ADS) updates; and more.

Learn about Review and Comment deadlines; the Macy Catalyst Awards; resources for coordinators; and opportunities for residents and fellows to participate in the accreditation process as Review Committee members. 

Read about the Review and Comment for combined programs and other proposed requirements; improvements coming to Learn at ACGME; the National Health Equity Grand Rounds on May 30; and more.

This week's email includes information about the ACGME's new partnership with Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation to present the Catalyst Awards for Transformation in Graduate Medical Education; coordinator resources; Review and Comment; and nominations for Review Committee membership.

In 2016, a Castlight Health report named Wilmington, North Carolina, the city with the highest abuse opioid abuse rate in the US. In response, Joseph Pino, MD, MHA, and members of the community sought to safely reduce the number of opioids prescribed, increase adherence to best practices in opioid prescribing, and reduce emergency department visits due to opioid overdose. His poster, presented at the 2019 ACGME Annual Educational Conference, reports the outcome of these multiple initiatives.

During their presentation “Using Public Data to Follow Graduates into Practice,” at the 2019 Annual Educational Conference, Marc M. Triola, MD and Patrick M. Cocks, MD, from the NYU School of Medicine have leveraged large databases of publicly available information to help understand the patterns of health care practice and outcomes among graduates from programs once they have left the programs.

John Madara, MD wanted to find a way to improve incoming residents’ ability to identify and mitigate patient safety hazards, address these hazards through teamwork and collaboration, and report safety events using an online event reporting system. Dr. Madara, the chief fellow in pulmonary and critical care medicine at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, worked with others to create an interactive, competitive “escape room” themed environment to stimulate learning and teamwork. His poster, Patient Safety Escape!: Engaging Residents in Patient Safety Education and Event Reporting, reports on the activity and its effectiveness in teaching residents about patient safety and online reporting procedures.

Physician educators must explore ways to teach physicians to practice with excellence, compassion, and justice, Dr. Arno K. Kumagai argued at the most recent Baldwin Seminar, the first of the 2019-2020 season. His talk, Reflection, Dialogue and Different Ways of Knowing: Beyond the Competency Paradigm in Medical Education, took place June 26 at the ACGME offices in Chicago, and was livestreamed.

ACGME Manager, Employee Communications Emily Vasiliou wrote about her experience attending the ACGME's annual Awards Retreat for recipients of the Courage to Lead and Courage to Teach Awards for the first time in 10 years.

A panel of institutional representatives and ACGME leaders discussed the successes and challenges of actively involving residents in patient safety improvement as part of the ACGME’s Pursuing Excellence in Clinical Learning Environments (Pursuing Excellence) initiative. The panel convened at a sunset session at the 2019 ACGME Annual Educational Conference.