Career Development Member Resources-Fellowship Directors

Video Transcription

Video Summary

This ACAM Faculty Development lecture, led by Claudia Moore with Ken Zuha, explains the “alphabet soup” of addiction medicine fellowship administration in ACGME language. The presenters review core requirements for building and running a fellowship, emphasizing that addiction medicine is a one-year program with defined clinical, didactic, inpatient, and outpatient experiences, plus required faculty and institutional support.<br /><br />They break down key structures: the ACGME’s Common Program Requirements, specialty-specific guidelines, the Designated Institutional Official (DIO), Graduate Medical Education Committee (GMEC), Clinical Competency Committee (CCC), and Program Evaluation Committee (PEC). The CCC is responsible for reviewing fellow performance using milestone-based data from multiple sources and making recommendations to the program director. The PEC evaluates the program itself through an annual SWOT-style review and creates a performance improvement plan that feeds into the ACGME’s annual update process.<br /><br />A major theme is that program administration is an ongoing, year-round cycle of evaluation, feedback, planning, and improvement. The speakers stress the importance of timely, specific, private, and empathetic feedback to fellows, as well as the need to avoid bias and use multiple data sources, including 360 evaluations, patient feedback, and faculty input. They also discuss practical lessons learned, such as the importance of a reliable coordinator, early scheduling of committee meetings, and keeping faculty lists lean and purposeful.<br /><br />Overall, the lecture encourages program directors to use the ACGME documents as a guide, focus on what best serves the fellow, and seek help from institutional and national resources.

Keywords

addiction medicine fellowship

ACGME

graduate medical education

clinical competency committee

program evaluation committee

designated institutional official

milestone-based assessment

faculty development

fellow feedback

program administration