March 2012
Graduate Medical Education
IMGs: Learn how to navigate the residency process
Multimedia presentations from a conference sponsored by the AMA International Medical Graduates Section last December are now available online:
- Navigating the Residency Process for ECFMG-certified Physicians
- Representation & Resources for International Medical Graduates
Check out the AMA Resident Outreach Program
The AMA would like to team with your institution for the Resident Outreach Program (ROP).
The AMA ROP strives to increase resident and fellow awareness of the AMA, including important resources and advocacy that helps physicians throughout their training and on into practice.
As part of this program, the AMA engages with residents during orientations, through an AMA table set up at exhibit fairs. Alternatively, if your institution does not have this type of forum available, the AMA can send you materials that you may wish to include in your orientation kits, GME office or other activities.
If your institution is interested in participating in ROP, please complete our online form by March 31.
Quotable: AMA president calls for more GME funding
In his "On the Road" blog, AMA President Peter W. Carmel, MD, notes growing concern about a projected physician shortage and the fallout for availability of patient care. He writes, "One simple solution could help ease this problem: expanding graduate medical education (GME) . . . . Current funding for GME, which comes from the Medicare budget, can pay for only a limited number of residency slots. And this funding is a marked target for budget cuts.
"The AMA continues to press policymakers to protect GME funding. We're working closely with the AAMC to ensure Congress understands the importance of funding to allow medical schools and teaching hospitals to train physicians and provide critical services to patients.
"The AMA also has supported a federal bill that would add 15,000 training positions over five years, and we continue to work on state-level strategies to address GME funding and the physician shortage. Without increased GME funding, we'll continue to waste the talent of thousands of medical graduates and watch the physician shortage rise."
News and notes
- A new study of internal medicine residency-affiliated primary hospitals finds that resident workload "had no significant association with quality of care and patient outcomes for the most common inpatient diagnoses." Training in handoffs, however, led to lower mortality rates for patients with pneumonia (The American Journal of Medicine)
- Newly updated from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services: Guidelines for Teaching Physicians, Interns, and Residents, which provides information about payments for physician services in teaching settings as well as general documentation and E/M documentation related to GME.
- Surfeit of specialists? A recent JAMA commentary raises questions about the level of specialization in medicine and its disadvantages, such as fragmentation of care and longer and more costly training regimens for physicians.
- "The Biggest Loser," GME style: Texas took a hit in the federal government's August 2011 redistribution of unused GME positions eligible for Medicare GME funding, losing 50.08 Direct Graduate Medical Education slots and 39.8 Indirect Medical Education positions from 21 hospitals.
- The Association for the Behavioral Sciences and Medical Education, which offers a forum for interdisciplinary exchange, has issued a call for presentations at its upcoming annual meeting, Oct. 4-6 in San Antonio, Texas. This year's meeting theme is "Leadership in Health Care Education: Recalibrating Our Ethical Compass."
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
- Order the Graduate Medical Education Directory
- 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
