Some issues in graduate medical education

Abstract

First, let me say how pleased I am to be with you today. I am delighted that this distinguished group of neurological surgeons has seen fit to find time on its program to talk about graduate medical education. The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) is deeply immersed in these issues as a parent of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, and as the home of the Council of Academic Societies, the part of our organization that houses the faculty. Although the AAMC is an organization of institutional rather than individual members, the institutions that the Association represents reflect the faculties that comprise them. The activities that the Association supports in its advocacy role--teaching, research, and patient care--represent the activities of individual faculty members. I believe it is very important for the Association and faculty organizations, such as yours, to work together. Graduate medical education, the training of house staff and fellows, has always been at the heart of the AAMC's faculty activities. In 1967 the Coggeshall report [1], which is the basis on which the modern AAMC was built, made among its recommendations the following: 1. The AAMC should seek positive and active relationships with key organizations interested in all aspects of education for the health sciences. 2. The AAMC should encourage greater participation in its affairs by individual faculty members.