Jessica L. O'Hara
The Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) released Wednesday, June, 23, 2010, draft standards that revise program requirements for supervision and duty hours for medical residents. The Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine (AAIM) is seeking clarification on several elements of the proposed requirements and will solicit member feedback as the organization prepares a written response to ACGME. AAIM invites members to submit any questions seeking clarification of the ACGME proposal (not implementation thereof) to policy@im.org by Tuesday, July 6, 2010.
AAIM plans to address the proposed duty hours and supervision standards with a four-step approach. First, AAIM will seek clarifications from ACGME and the Residency Review Committee for Internal Medicine (RRC-IM) on several elements of the proposed revisions, including maximum duty period length for first-year residents, specific resident supervision requirements, and the timeline for RRC-IM action to specify requirements under its purview. AAIM invites members to submit any questions about clarifying the proposal in this vein to policy@im.org by Tuesday, July 6, 2010. AAIM reserves the right to select which questions to submit in its inquiry to ACGME and RRC-IM.
Second, after receiving clarifications on the proposal, AAIM will seek input from the membership through structured online surveys. The alliance presently anticipates releasing the surveys the week of July 12 with a short period for response.
Third, after receiving additional member input, the AAIM Duty Hours Task Force, which includes AAIM President D. Craig Brater, MD, and the current past presidents of the five alliance associations, will compose a written response to submit to ACGME. AAIM's response will be shared with the membership.
Lastly, AAIM plans to provide information to the membership about best practices in response to the updated requirements. Planning is underway for a “How Did They Do That” session during Academic Internal Medicine Week 2010 to address what programs are doing or plan to do to respond to the new standards. Please look for additional information on member education opportunities in future articles of AAIM Connection.
For more information about the revised requirements, please visit the ACGME website.