An Insider’s Session Guide to the Annual Educational Conference

February 26, 2018

With pre-conferences, specialty sessions, plenaries, a keynote, the Exhibit Hall, poster sessions, awards, and networking on tap, the 2018 ACGME Annual Educational Conference has tons to offer!

We know it can be a lot to juggle, so to help you make the most of your experience, here’s a snapshot of some of what’s in store based on your program or institutional role or area of interest – call it a cheat sheet of sorts.

Designated Institutional Officials
In addition to the DIO 101 and 102: Innovation in the Learning and Working Environment pre-conference courses…

  • SES103: Town Hall – Institutional for DIOs is an open Q&A forum to discuss established subjects.
  • New DIOs should also check out SES078: Planning for your First CLER Experience to get background on what to expect from a CLER site visit, and resources for those in new leadership roles.
  • For DIOs engaged in diversity efforts in their programs, SES048: Promoting Excellence and Collaboration across the Continuum of Medical Education will present a variety of approaches to enhancing recruitment of underrepresented minorities.

Osteopathic Physicians
The Osteopathic Pre-Conference will once again be a featured collaboration between the ACGME and the Association of Osteopathic Directors and Medical Educators (AODME), offering an informative day of updates on the transition to a single GME accreditation system. Also check out…

  • SES016: Developing Scholarly Activity in a Community Hospital Setting: A Multi-disciplinary Approach will address scholarly activities for new and current projects for osteopathic programs.
  • SES100: Osteopathic Recognition will present an update on Recognition Committee and ACGME activities, and more.
  • SES011: Specialty Update: Osteopathic Neuromusculoskeletal Medicine will inform attendees on Review Committee and ACGME updates, followed up by an opportunity for Q&A with the Review Committee Chair and Executive Director.

Program Directors
The pre-conference intro course for program directors new to the accreditation process includes information about the ACGME and the Review Committees, data collection systems, and an overview of the review process. Expect to learn about both written and unwritten expectations as a program director, to hear intriguing presentations, do small group work, and hear from Review Committee Chairs who are current or former program directors. Also…

  • Program directors interested in executing a wellness and well-being curriculum or looking to complement their existing activities have the choice of two featured sessions Saturday morning.
  • SES064: Getting Started with Resident Well-being Research: Effective Survey Design will offer practical approaches for conducting wellness survey research, including tips on survey planning and strategies, question creation, and how to improve response rates.
  • SES065: Peer-to-Peer Pearls: Improving Trainee Wellness through Shared Experiences will inform attendees on three existing resident-led programs that promote a healthy lifestyle during resident training.
  • SES115: Tackling Professionalism Issues in Residency Training will address strategies and methods to remediate professionalism.
  • SES025: The Humanism Project: An Integrated Curriculum on Communication and Self-care for Residents presents a review of a longitudinal three year-course

Program Coordinators
The Pre-Conference Coordinator Forum: Inner Dimensions of the Program Coordinator is an essential for new and old GME program coordinators. This full-day course consists of three coordinator-selected breakout sessions and three plenaries. Most program coordinators also attend the main educational conference in addition to the forum…

  • SES99: The CLER Site Visit: Insights for GME Coordinators offers a detailed understanding of why the CLER visit exists in a particular format, and the importance of each part of the visit.
  • SES058: Coordinator Plenary: Mapping Your Five-Year Career Plan: Lessons from Three GME Leaders and Former Administrators will present some pearls of wisdom from speakers with over 10 years of experience in medical education. The session will provide practical career growth information, resources on becoming top performers, skills building, and networking to develop other career opportunities in areas of medical education.

Residents/Fellows
The powerful work of the ACGME Council of Review Committee Residents (CRCR) is on display again at this year’s conference. Last year the CRCR hosted a session to foster a discussion on ways to improve well-being in individual programs. This year’s CRCR-hosted session, SES083: Well-being Programs: Troubleshooting Roadblocks, will focus on building on the work attendees are already doing in their home programs and trouble-shoot issues that have come up in implementing a well-being program. Also check out…

  • SES045: Integrating Leadership Experiences into Residency Training will provide a briefing on an appreciative inquiry exercise the CRCR performed to identify existing leadership resources, envision the ideal leadership learning environment, and develop a leadership curriculum to update current GME chief resident leadership curriculum elements that are applicable to residents.
  • SES026: Is There a Paper in Your Poster or Abstract? Getting to the Paper After a Poster offers writing tips on turning posters or abstracts into submission-ready papers.
  • SES090: Practical Solutions to Teaching Population Health for Institutions and Programs will offer information about population health, why residents should care, and how they can impact care beyond the individual patient.

Innovations in Physician Well-Being
The ACGME Annual Educational Conference remains a substantial opportunity for GME professionals and the community to learn more about, strategize, and implement programs and tactics to take on the critical issue of well-being. Numerous sessions starting from the pre-conferences through the final closing sessions will have an emphasis on the topic to help inform, enhance, consider, and initiate a change in GME culture. A few previews…

  • SES018: Improving Resident Resilience and Wellness provides a briefing on the current state of resident wellness, offer tools to identify areas of improvement for wellness in your institution, methods to measure effectiveness, and an open forum to share effective practices.
  • SES046: Focusing on the WHOLE: Wellness and Humanistic Optimization Led through Education will spotlight a program in Columbus, Ohio that takes a humanistic approach in providing residents the tools to persist through their high-stress-environment careers.
  • SES092: Finding Local Solutions to Promote Resident Well-being on Saturday will help program directors learn how they can involve residents in identifying burnout, and generate actions plans with results.
  • SES107: Stress Reduction and Mindfulness Techniques for Residents and Faculty will teach attendees signs and symptoms of stress along with a variety of interactive relaxation techniques that can apply in the clinical learning environment.

CLER/Patient Safety
For attendees searching for information about the Clinical Learning Environment Review (CLER) Program or faculty development in patient safety, there is a lot awaiting you throughout the conference…

  • SES28: CLER Program Updates will apprise attendees on the CLER Program, including an update on the new Focus Area of Well-Being.
  • Patient safety and quality improvement (PSQI) training attentive to fellows considered in SES071: Developing and Assessing an Intensive PSQI Seminar for Fellows.
  • Collaborate with peers and learn about the ACGME Pursuing Excellence in the Clinical Learning Environment in SES091: Making the Business Case for Faculty Development to Improve Clinical Care and Resident Learning.
  • Learn about the success and challenges of establishing a quality and safety subcommittee SES116: Initiating a GMEC Quality and Patient Safety (QPS) Subcommittee: Utility and Benefits.
  • SES117: Safety Event Analysis: Training Faculty to Train Residents workshop will give an overview of the safety event analysis curriculum and then be trained through a simulation to conduct their own analysis.
Again, this is just a snippet of what’s in store at next week’s Annual Educational Conference. Find out more about sessions and stay connected by downloading the ACGME 2018 Conference Mobile App and following all of the live ACGME conference coverage on Twitter (@ACGME; #ACGME2018), and catch some highlights here on the blog!