CHICAGO, Mar. 21, 2008– Nearly 1,200 people attended the 2008 Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education Annual Educational Conference, held Feb. 28-March 2 at the Gaylord Texan in Grapevine, Texas. Participants chose from among 61 sessions on topics including the basics of accreditation site visits, resident assessments, curriculum design, and specialty-specific issues. The sold-out conference, which drew a record number of attendees for an ACGME educational meeting, also featured pre-meeting workshops for new residency program directors and coordinators, technology consultations, demonstrations of the prototype of the ACGME's learning portfolio, and a poster session.

The chief executive officer of the ACGME, Thomas J. Nasca, MD, MACP, gave a welcoming address to the participants on Friday morning. During a leadership session later in the conference, he outlined the ACGME's structure and function and described the organization's goals. A primary focus of the ACGME as a steward of graduate medical education, said Dr. Nasca, is to keep “moving [graduate medical education] forward to the endpoints of improving patient care.” Dr. Nasca discussed how the ACGME plans to streamline program requirements, reorganize governance to improve efficiency and strengthen relationships with other medical organizations.

The keynote address was presented by Nancy M. Schlichting, president and CEO of Henry Ford Health System in Detroit . Ms. Schlichting discussed how the Henry Ford Health System has built community and improved quality through a commitment to “seven pillars of excellence”: people, service, quality, growth, education and research, community and finance. The health system's recent honors, said Ms. Schlichting, include a consumer's choice award, a leadership award from the Michigan Quality Council and a ranking from the Leapfrog Group as being among the top hospitals for quality.

Ms. Schlichting listed some of the ways in which the Henry Ford Health System has improved quality, including a switch to electronic medical records, the construction of a $5 million clinical simulation laboratory, the appointment of a system-wide director of medical education, a commitment to reducing harm events by 50 percent, and a partnership with a local college to educate displaced auto works as nurses.

The 2009 ACGME Annual Educational Conference will take place March 5-9 at the Gaylord Texan. Online registration will be available in late 2008 or early 2009.

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The ACGME is a private, non-profit organization that accredits 8,200 residency programs in 126 specialties and subspecialties that educate 103,000 residents. Its mission is to improve the quality of health care in the United States by assessing and advancing the quality of resident physicians’ education.