Residency accreditation leader to speak

By Claire Dietz
HS New & Community Relations

Dr. David Leach, executive director of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), the organization that certifies medical residency programs in the United States, will be at the UW in early May for a presentation on ACGME’s Outcomes Project.

Leach

Leach will speak from 4 to 5 p.m. on Tuesday, May 8, in room K-069 of the Health Sciences Center. His topic is “The ACGME Outcome Project: Frequently Asked Questions and Frequently Questioned Answers.”

The presentation is open to everyone interested but people should call 543-0065 or e-mail cpoppe@u.washington.edu if they plan to attend.

The Outcomes Project is a long-term initiative to increase emphasis on educational outcomes when residency programs are evaluated. Over several years, there will be a gradual transition from emphasis on the structure and organization of the residency programs toward focusing on measuring actual learning accomplishments by the residents, or “outcomes.”

The program includes identification of six core competencies. Others appropriate to specific specialties will be developed.

In order to measure the outcomes, ACGME, sometimes working with other professional organizations, is developing and identifying new evaluation tools. Many will be included in an “Assessment Tool Box” that ACGME, along with the American Board of Medical Specialties, is putting together.

Some funding for the Outcomes Project has been provided by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Leach, who will be speaking at the UW, became executive director of ACGME in 1997. He had been at the University of Michigan, where he was assistant dean of medicine, and the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit. He earned an M.D. from the University of Rochester in 1969 and completed residency training in internal medicine and endocrinology at the Henry Ford Health System. In 1993, he received a Good Samaritan Award from Michigan Gov. John Engler for his work over more than 20 years at a clinic for the homeless.

Dr. John Gienapp, director of the UW School of Medicine’s Office of Graduate Medical Education Program Assessment and Development, is a former executive director of ACGME.