July 30, 2020—In early 2020, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) announced plans to conduct a major revision of the Family Medicine Program Requirements. The last major revision went into effect in 2006.

Representatives from family medicine organizations have an opportunity to provide input on the requirements. In February, the American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM) convened a committee to drive a specialty-wide dialogue and plan a National Summit on the Future of Residency Training. The committee includes representatives from each of the family medicine organizations and is meeting monthly. Frederick Chen, MD, is STFM’s representative. The committee’s first task was to develop a list of core questions that will drive community conversations, national focus groups, and commissioned papers for the Summit.

The committee is working closely with researchers at ABFM and the Robert Graham Center, with Andrew Bazemore, MD, coordinating the work. Connections have also been made with researchers at the ACGME and other organizations. The researchers are preparing background briefs to inform upcoming community conversations.

Next Steps:

• Focus groups: The core questions developed by the committee will be used for focus groups, which will be conducted by each of the family medicine organizations from early August through mid-October. The focus group results will provide foundational information for commissioned papers, in advance of the National Summit.
• Website: The committee is creating an open access website for the discipline and those interested in the future of the discipline. The website will include background information, summaries of the focus groups, the commissioned papers, and any commentaries.
• The National Summit: The virtual summit will take place December 6-7. It will be highly interactive, based on the commissioned papers and focus group results. During the meeting, and shortly thereafter, there will be peer review of the papers, which will be published in a journal. Once revised and approved, the articles will go to the RC-FM writing committee. There was an open call for nominations for the Summit.

In parallel with the work of the family medicine organizations, the ACGME Review Committee for Family Medicine will conduct a future forecasting exercise that will inform the requirements. The writing of the new program requirements is planned to start in early 2021.

Learn more by reading an article in JABFM titled The Future of Family Medicine Residency Training is Our Future: A Call for Dialogue Across Our Community.

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