ACGME President and Chief Executive Officer Thomas J. Nasca, MD, MACP Announces Transition

ACGME President and Chief Executive Officer Thomas J. Nasca, MD, MACP announced today that he intends to step down from his current role on January 1, 2025, to establish the ACGME Center for Professionalism and the Future of Medicine. Dr. Nasca will serve as the initial Senior Fellow and Administrative Director. The ACGME Board of Directors will undertake a national search to identify the next President and CEO.

During Dr. Nasca’s 17-year tenure at the ACGME, graduate medical education (GME) has undergone tremendous growth, with ACGME-accredited residencies increasing from 3,633 programs to 5,270 and accredited fellowships increasing from 4,112 programs to 7,292. In the face of this rapid growth, Dr. Nasca was able to advance the accreditation model for GME by implementing the Next Accreditation System, a data-driven, analytic process of both accrediting programs and institutions and identifying and providing opportunities for their continuous improvement. By developing and instituting the ACGME’s Clinical Learning Environment Review (CLER) Program, Milestones, and the Department of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, he enabled the ACGME to assist programs and their Sponsoring Institutions in achieving the Quintuple Aim in preparing the future physician workforce. While improving the accreditation process, Dr. Nasca also strengthened the ACGME as an organization. The list of his accomplishments in this area is long and includes:

• Creating the Department of Education and facilitating the subsequent growth and impact of the Annual Education Conference
• Founding the Journal of Graduate Medical Education, providing a venue for resident, fellow, and faculty scholarly achievement
• Establishing a research division with a focus on Milestones development, GME outcomes studies, and physician well-being
• Establishing the CLER Program, an institutional effort to assess clinical learning environments and improve education in patient safety and quality improvement
• Establishing and overseeing ACGME International, which provides GME accreditation services outside the United States
• Establishing the Department of Communication and Public Policy
• Establishing the Department of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
• Designing and developing a new ACGME facility for efficient meetings and conferences,
• Providing international accreditation resources and consultative services through ACGME Global Services to countries and governments interested in creating GME accreditation functions locally
• Leading the ACGME through two major strategic planning cycles, resulting in many of the innovations and improvements described above
• Leading the ACGME and GME through the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic

Dr. Nasca has also been a national and international leader in GME. As Co-Chair and participant in the National Academy of Medicine’s Action Collaboratives, including those focused on clinician well-being, and substance abuse disorder education and treatment, he has advanced resident and fellow awareness and understanding of these complex issues, assisting their formation as compassionate, capable, and confident physicians.

Dr. Nasca’s vision of consistent and uniform national accreditation standards and desired outcomes for GME led to the osteopathic and allopathic medical communities creating a single system for accrediting US residencies and fellowships. This development recognized the ACGME as the organization where both traditions of medicine convene and shape the development of the next generation of physicians.

ACGME Board Chair Ms. Claudia Wyatt-Johnson, a public member of the Board, said of Dr. Nasca, “Tom personifies the public’s highest expectations for physicians. He is compassionate, value- driven, and leads by staying true to his personal and professional ethical standards. He has been a strong advocate for the social contract in medicine and has embodied its principles through his dedication to the education of the next generation of physicians and his commitment to realizing the Quintuple Aim of health care.”

During his time at the ACGME, Dr. Nasca demonstrated his dedication to teaching medical students and residents and fellows by continuing to publish and lecture both domestically and internationally. He also served as professor of Medicine at Sidney Kimmel Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University, and as senior scholar in the Department of Medical Education at the University of Illinois College of Medicine.

Reflecting on his time at the ACGME, Dr. Nasca commented, “It has been an honor and a privilege of a lifetime to serve alongside such a talented group of employees, Board members, and volunteers in pursuit of better health and health care for all people. Our future physicians will be well positioned to care for the needs of an increasingly diverse population with evolving health challenges because of the work of the ACGME, performed by these dedicated individuals who exemplify the best of the medical profession.”

The ACGME thanks Dr. Nasca for his outstanding leadership and service and looks forward to continuing to collaborate with him as he explores the role of professionalism in the future of medicine.