June 1, 2022—By July 2023, family medicine residency programs will need to make major changes to their programs to meet new ACGME requirements. The 2023 requirements reflect the first major update for family medicine residencies in about 10 years. 

At its May 2022 meeting, the STFM Board of Directors approved a proposal for what will be a multi-year project to:

1. Create an innovative model for Residency Learning Collaboratives built on a consistent, sustainable infrastructure
2. Equip residency programs to deliver competency-based education and assessment, focusing on “what is learned rather than what is taught”
3. Integrate interprofessional behavioral healthcare into residency programs

The details of the implementation plan are still in development. What follows is a general overview of strategies.

1. Create an innovative model for Residency Learning Collaboratives built on a consistent, sustainable infrastructure

These Residency Learning Collaboratives will help programs meet (draft) requirements 1.D.1.a) and IV.D.1.b).(1):

• The program must partner with other family medicine residency programs through regional learning collaboratives to share resources to facilitate programs and their Family Medicine Practice (FMP) sites attaining educational and community aims
• The program must use regional learning collaboratives to create and share scholarly activity.

Family medicine residency programs and their faculty will be able to join the Residency Learning Collaboratives for networking, scholarly activity collaboration, educational resource sharing, diverse role modeling, and collaborative projects to improve clinical and educational experiences.

This work will begin with an information-gathering Summit in fall, 2022.

2. Equip residency programs to deliver competency-based education and assessment, focusing on “what is learned rather than what is taught”

STFM will launch a Competency-Based Education Task Force to define and develop faculty training in and resources for competency-based education. The task force will develop a Competency-Based Education Action Plan, which may include:

• • Competency-based education and assessment resources
  • A change package that can be implemented by Residency Learning Collaboratives 
  • In-person and virtual faculty development
  • Strategies for developing individualized learning plans for residents
  • Strategies for remediation of residents not meeting competency standards
  • Mentors/coaches/facilitators/instructional designers to provide 1:1 advice on implementation

3. Integrate interprofessional behavioral healthcare into residency programs

Early stage work will include reviewing existing knowledge on integrating interprofessional behavioral healthcare into residency programs; identifying residency programs that are successfully integrating interprofessional behavioral healthcare into their program; getting community input on needs, and developing an Action Plan.

The deliverables of this work will help residency programs meet (draft) requirement II.B.2.i).(1): Each program should provide experience in integrated interprofessional behavioral health care.