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.

Andrea Rio’s name – or maybe her e-mail address – is probably very familiar to anyone who’s ever attended any ACGME educational program. Her integral role in the Annual Educational Conference, however, is much more than processing registrations and payments and making sure badges print correctly! As a key member of the ACGME’s Educational Activities team, she is central to the growth and success of the conference. We asked her to share a bit more about what she does and what the conference experience is like for her behind the scenes.

Registration for the 2019 Annual Educational Conference opens today! We are so excited to come together again as a community – the graduate medical education community – to share ideas and research, to network, to learn, to teach, to invigorate and inspire innovation, and to hear about all the ways that physician educators and physicians in training and the coordinators and administrators and leaders in their programs and institutions find Meaning in Medicine.

This week's e-Communication includes information on the transition to residency toolkit created by a consortium of medical education organizations; the Basics of Accreditation workshop registration information; and the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer Forum.

Karen J. Nichols, DO, MA, MACOI, FACP, CS-F is the current Chair of the ACGME Board of Directors, having assumed this role in September 2020. We asked Dr. Nichols to talk about her professional experience, her role, and her experience with the ACGME’s first-ever virtual Annual Educational Conference.

In the poster, Waging War Against Physician Burnout: Overcoming the Barriers of Military Medicine with Personalized Patient Care Boards, presented at the 2021 ACGME Annual Educational Conference, Dr. Jessika Weber and colleagues present their project that looked at how customized care boards in pediatric patient rooms are helping young patients.

2021 Parker J. Palmer Courage to Teach Awardee Joanne Valeriano-Marcet, MD is the rheumatology program director at University of South Florida Morsani College of 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.

2021 Parker J. Palmer Courage to Lead Awardee Meghan M. Walsh MD, MPH, FACP is the chief academic officer and DIO at Hennepin Healthcare. She specializes in internal medicine.

2021 Debra L. Dooley GME Program Coordinator Excellence Awardee Adam Finney is a program coordinator for child neurology and pediatric epilepsy at the University of Colorado.