The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) has announced major changes in how the nation’s medical residency programs will be accredited in the years ahead, putting in place an outcomes-based evaluation system where the doctors of tomorrow will be measured for their competency in performing the essential tasks necessary for clinical practice in the 21st century.

Summarized in a paper published in the February 22, 2012 online edition of the New England Journal of Medicine, the ACGME’s next accreditation system for graduate medical education (GME) will be fully implemented by 2014. When the new system goes into effect, each accredited medical residency program must demonstrate that its residents have the core competencies and clinical skills to deliver quality patient care and respond to rapid developments in health care delivery. The ACGME’s new system will cover more than 9,000 medical residency programs across the country.

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