January 2012
Graduate Medical Education
"Increasing stress" on graduate medical education?
The U.S. Senate has asked the Institute of Medicine, in a Dec. 21 letter, to conduct an independent review of the governance and financing of the GME system in the U.S. The letter cites the "increasing stress" on GME and a failure to match production from training programs to projected workforce needs. It also asks for recommendations on statutory, regulatory, and accreditation changes by the third quarter of 2012.
FREIDA Online offers data on USMLE scores
New on FREIDA Online this winter are facts and figures of particular interest to residency program applicants. This past spring the National GME Census, which supplies much of the data for FREIDA Online, included a question asking whether programs require applicants' USMLE Step 1 or Step 2 scores for interview consideration. To date, 62 percent of programs state they require a Step 1 score and 48 percent require a Step 2 score. Of those programs requiring these scores, 86 percent (for Step 1) and 85 percent (for Step 2) provided the minimum three-digit score they use as a cutoff for interview consideration.
Also new on FREIDA Online is information on whether programs provide curriculum on economics of health systems, and if resident assessment of the program's curriculum overall is part of how the institution evaluates residency programs. Fifteen percent of programs provide education on health system economics, and 48 percent include curriculum assessment as a measure of the quality of the program.
We welcome your feedback about FREIDA Online.
Wanted: Leaders in graduate medical education
Explore the various ways you can get involved and become an active leader in GME and organized medicine—and speak for the interests of your colleagues and patients—by browsing a list of opportunities from the AMA.
The list is organized by segment and has a wide range of opportunities. For example, the AMA Council on Medical Education is seeking nominations to fill 15 slots on 14 different Residency Review Committees of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, including:
- Dermatology
- Diagnostic radiology
- Emergency medicine
- Family medicine
- Medical genetics
- Nuclear medicine
- Orthopedic surgery
- Pathology
- Pediatrics
- Physical medicine and rehabilitation
- Radiation oncology
- Psychiatry
- Surgery
- Thoracic surgery
To learn more about these RRC opportunities or to apply, contact Evelyn Sherrill of the AMA via email or at (312) 464-4515.
News and notes
- Are we training the right number of radiologists? Carol Rumack, MD, the Associate Dean for Graduate Medical Education at the University of Colorado School of Medicine offers her commentary on Medscape.
- "Stay here: We'll make it worth your while." That's the message of a growing number of states, which are using "bonuses, scholarships or loan repayment programs to keep physicians from leaving" after medical school and residency training, notes a recent American Medical News article. More communities are also realizing that developing new residency programs offers a good way to ensure that young physicians stay where they've trained.
- A recent study in the Archives of Surgery calls attention to the "service/education dichotomy" in surgery residency training and "residents' concern over the erosion of continuity of patient care, lack of autonomy, and a poor learning environment in a duty hour–limited paradigm."
- Register now for the 2012 AHME Educational Institute, May 16-19 at the Marriott Harbor Beach Resort & Spa, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
AMA resources for you and your trainees
- View an archive version of our webinar on ways to expand and improve GME
- Check out our new recommendations on strategies to expand funding of GME
- Get trend data on undergraduate and graduate medical education
- Watch a YouTube video summary of the New Horizons in Medical Education conference
- Help your residents master the ACGME general competency requirements
- Learn more about patient safety in medical education
- Get updated information on medical licensure
- Obtain state-by-state GME data
- Get an updated copy of our GME glossary (email meded@ama-assn.org with "glossary" in subject line)
- Post open residency positions (click on "Residency and Fellowship Vacancy Submission Form")
For more reading
