Will you be participating in the ACGME Annual Educational Conference this week? Join a discussion with ACGME Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer William A. McDade, MD, PhD; Anita Blanchard, MD, former designated institutional official at the University of Chicago; and Donna Lamb, DHSc, MBA, BSN, president and chief executive officer of the National Residency Matching Program (NRMP), to learn about the impact of data to drive diversity within graduate medical education (GME). Session 030, Converting Data to Information in GME Diversity, will stream on Friday, April 1 from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Central. The session is designated as semi-live, meaning the presenters will be online during that time and participants can comment, engage, and ask questions through the chat feature.
Together, Drs. McDade, Blanchard, and Lamb answer questions about why data collection and the steps to convert student and resident data into valuable information for GME recruitment and retention are so critically important.
Making the case is Dr. McDade, who leads the ACGME efforts to increase physician diversity and ensure inclusive clinical learning environments for our nation’s residencies and fellowships. He lays out the current state of underrepresented in medicine residents and some of the barriers in the GME system. Dr. McDade sets up the context for the session, in which attendees will be able to grow their understanding of how demographic data regarding identity are obtained and the problems with schema to represent the population of individuals in graduate medical education.
Dr. Blanchard, who is committed to enhancing Chicago’s South Side community by increasing the diversity of physicians and building programs to fulfill community health needs, talks more about how this can be done. As Associate Dean for Graduate Medical Education at the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Medicine, she supervised and supported hundreds of residents and fellows in more than 100 programs. She also serves as a member of the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology’s Board of Directors and as a member of the ACGME‘s Review Committee for Obstetrics and Gynecology, and was the co-Principal Investigator of the University of Chicago’s project as part of the ACGME’s Pursuing Excellence in Clinical Learning Environments initiative. Dr. Blanchard discusses the importance of building a diverse GME pathway, suggesting that by utilizing data in the recruitment process, a stronger pathway can be built between residents and faculty members.
Closing out the session, Dr. Lamb highlights how to convert data to information that can transform GME diversity. Participants will learn how demographic data will be reported to them regarding the Match and how its use may reveal disparities in educational outcomes. Before joining the NRMP, Dr. Lamb was an Executive Director at the ACGME, overseeing the work of the Review Committees for Plastic Surgery, Surgery, and Thoracic Surgery. She also held positions in GME as a DIO and chair of an institutional Graduate Medical Education Committee. Dr. Lamb began her career in nursing, working in trauma, cardiovascular, and neonatal intensive care units, and has also held positions as a director for hospital operations and administration and legal consulting.
Several sessions on topics of diversity, equity, and inclusion are part of the agenda at the Annual Educational Conference. To identify this one and others to add to your conference schedule, search “diversity” in the online session schedule.
The staff of the ACGME’s Department of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion will also be available to connect with conference attendees in the ACGME Hub in the virtual conference platform, which will be open from 2:00-4:00 p.m. Central throughout the conference (March 30-April 1).
Learn more about the conference on the ACGME website. Share conference experiences and learnings throughout the week on Twitter, using #ACGME2022 and #MeaningInMedicine.