I am thrilled to welcome the GME community—both literally and virtually—to the 2020 ACGME Annual Educational Conference. Each year this conference has grown – in terms of attendees, content quality, and overall experience – and this year is no different. We are breaking all records and I am excited to see how everything comes together to create a one-of-a-kind gathering for all involved. With over 4,300 registered attendees and conference activities taking place at two hotels, this year’s event promises to ask much of us all logistically! Please be patient and kind with us and each other and let’s all keep this year’s conference theme, Meaning in Medicine: Compassion and Connection, as our Guiding Star. This conference provides us with a special and unique opportunity in our professional lives. It allows us to learn and expand our thinking, connect and reconnect with colleagues, friends, mentors, mentees, and others, and spend a few days focusing on the important work of graduate medical education and how we can continue to improve it. The theme asks us to genuinely tune in and work together, to recall what drives us to do this important work, and to engender the qualities of generosity and kindness to build bridges and constantly uncover meaning in our day to day.
This conference is packed with enriching content that will tap into your passions and inspire you. We have more than 145 sessions—more than we’ve ever had before. They were selected from the strongest pool of submissions we’ve ever had before, and represent topics generated by the community through our first ever Call for Topics. We know attendees can’t get to all of them, and that many of you will feel like you are missing something important. We will capture as much as we can here on the ACGME Blog and through other vehicles, both during and for several weeks following the conference to share with the community the wealth of knowledge and innovations being offered. Also be sure to follow the ACGME on Twitter (@ACGME) and use the conference hashtag, #ACGME2020, in your own tweets and posts to help us tell this story.
Some highlights I want to mention:
- We have sessions on several major topics in medicine and medical education, including diversity and inclusion, well-being, professional development, medicine in underserved areas, the opioid crisis, and more.
- We have ACGME-related sessions to help and support new and experienced program staff members, faculty members, and leadership on topics including the Milestones, specialty updates, ACGME initiatives, distance learning, the CLER Program, and more.
- We have presenters and attendees from AACOM, AAMC, ABMS, AOA, AOGME, ECFMG, NAM, NRMP, and many other esteemed organizations.
- Our pre-conferences for coordinators, program directors, DIOs, and osteopathic programs and institutions transitioning to ACGME accreditation are packed with wonderfully rich information and networking opportunities.
- Our Exhibit Hall has many new, exciting features and activities this year, including a bookstore featuring titles by several of our plenary speakers.
- We have 73 resident and fellow attendees.
- We have a really special Marvin R. Dunn Keynote Address this year, presented as a Fireside Chat between pediatrician, professor, and public health advocate Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha and ACGME President and CEO Dr. Thomas J. Nasca, as well as, for the first time, a Closing Plenary with Dr. Eric Topol of the Scripps Research Translational Institute.
- For the first time, we’ll conclude our conference Saturday evening by gathering all together again as a community for a final toast to celebrate all of the connections we are about to make and strengthen.
And more. So much more.
I hope those of you here in San Diego find these next few days to be motivating, invigorating, and centering, both personally and professionally. I hope you leave the conference ready to infuse your daily work with the energy you are about to experience at this important and meaningful event. And for those unable to attend, I hope you will take advantage of the various ways we will share information, and that you’ll be able to learn from your colleagues and friends who are here—and join us at a future conference (we’ll be in Nashville next year!).