John Madara, MD wanted to find a way to improve incoming residents’ ability to identify and mitigate patient safety hazards, address these hazards through teamwork and collaboration, and report safety events using an online event reporting system. Dr. Madara, the chief fellow in pulmonary and critical care medicine at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, worked with others to create an interactive, competitive “escape room” themed environment to stimulate learning and teamwork. His poster, Patient Safety Escape!: Engaging Residents in Patient Safety Education and Event Reporting, reports on the activity and its effectiveness in teaching residents about patient safety and online reporting procedures.

Health provider shortage areas, comprised of urban and rural regions with high populations of people struggling with multi-morbidity and poverty, often have a challenge with physician recruitment. Dr. Meaghan Ruddy, vice president for Academic Affairs and director of Medical Education for The Wright Center for GME in Scranton, Pennsylvania, describes how a teaching health center family medicine program operationalized as a graduate medical education safety-net consortium.

Register for the 2025 ACGME Annual Educational Conference; apply for a 2026 ACGME Award; participate in the January Clinician Educator Journal Club meeting; and submit Milestones assessments by January 10, 2025.

Register for the 2025 ACGME Annual Educational Conference before the price increases; nominate an institution for the Thomas J. Nasca Professionalism Award; access the Language Equity in Health Care Toolkit, and more.

Register to attend the 2025 Annual Educational Conference; browse the Annual Educational Conference Job Board; nominate a colleague for the 2026 ACGME Awards; and participate in a webinar about the Physician Data Initiative.

Dr. Jordan J. Cohen explored the evolution of medical education in his presentation, “Looking at the Road Ahead through the Rearview Mirror,” as the 2018 Marvin R. Dunn Keynote speaker at last month's Annual Educational Conference, offering his unique perspective as graduate medical education (GME) leader.

The next post in the Partnerships to Establish and Sustain Rural GME series looks at the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics Authority.

Welcome to the new academic year! As thousands of new residents begin their journey toward independent practice this month, we asked Jeff Dewey, MD, former resident member of the Review Committee for Neurology, to reflect on his experiences in residency and share lessons he learned.