The ACGME recognizes how increasing diversity in the physician workforce positively impacts health care access and patient outcomes, a key part of the organization's Mission.

The ACGME’s goal is to contribute to the elimination of health care inequities by focusing on the physician workforce. Through its Department of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), the ACGME engages in work to provide knowledge and tools for the graduate medical education (GME) community to advance physician workforce diversity and build safe, inclusive, and equitable learning environments for physicians.

The Department of DEI focuses on four key focus areas: education; outreach; research; and accreditation.

Education

A foundational piece of doing DEI work is a strong understanding of concepts. The ACGME Department of DEI focuses on providing educational opportunities to the GME community through ACGME Equity Matters^TM.

Outreach

Each month, the Department of DEI hosts a DEI Officers Forum call to build greater community connection within GME. This is a peer-based, shared learning space that includes more than 1,000 participants engaged in DEI work. Each session features experts in DEI, clinical operations, and medical education to inform new and current leaders about strategies to help meet their goals of expanding workforce diversity and making learning environments more equitable and inclusive. To learn more about the DEI Officers Forum and how to participate, email diversity@acgme.org.

Research

Current research efforts are focused on evaluating and updating data collection to be more reflective of the populations in GME. In a partnership with Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and American Medical Association (AMA), the Physician Data Summit, completed a project mid-2022, to align categories of race and ethnicity in the workforce.

Accreditation

The environments in which physicians learn and train will have an impact on the future of health care.

The foundation of the ACGME’s commitment to DEI is based in accreditation and in setting the standards for the learning environments that provide graduate medical education. The ACGME has several Common Program Requirements addressing issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion in clinical learning environments. Individual Review Committees consider multiple data points provided by Sponsoring Institutions and programs annually to determine substantial compliance with all ACGME requirements.