ACGME Issues Statement on the Executive Order on Race and Sex Stereotyping

CHICAGO, Sept. 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The ACGME today issued a statement on the Presidential Executive Order on Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping. The Order, issued September 22, 2020 seemingly promotes training of employees to create an inclusive environment by avoiding race and sex stereotyping; however, that intent is subverted by defining divisive concepts in a way that turns mechanisms intended to protect into weapons of divisiveness and exclusion. The Executive Order is inconsistent with work done over the past 50 years to advance civil rights of minoritized and thereby marginalized communities in the United States and, through its mandates, risks further division and fostering a culture of enmity. This approach works against the ACGME's mission to improve both health and health care for patients and communities and ultimately results in worsening health outcomes for those we are dedicated to serve.

The ACGME has sought to advance the work of diversity, equity, and inclusion and the elimination of health disparities through its programs, policies, and requirements. The goal of the ACGME is to foster a professional, equitable, respectful, and civil environment that is free from discrimination, sexual and other forms of harassment, mistreatment, abuse, or coercion of students, residents, and faculty and staff members, for the betterment of patient care through its accreditation processes.

Prohibiting institutions from providing certain types of education and training that the Executive Order deems to be promoting racial and sexual stereotypes would have devastating consequences on educating residents and fellows toward the goal of eliminating disparities in health outcomes and achieving equity within the health care profession. The Executive Order would similarly preclude residency and fellowship programs from developing curricula that reflect the needs of their communities, particularly in those of color and women, and promote inclusivity.

Read the full ACGME statement.

The ACGME is a private, non-profit, professional organization responsible for the accreditation of over 12,000 residency and fellowship programs and the approximately 865 institutions that sponsor these programs in the United States. Residency and fellowship programs educate approximately 145,000 resident and fellow physicians in 157 specialties and subspecialties. The ACGME's mission is to improve health care and population health by assessing and advancing the quality of resident physicians' education through accreditation.

SOURCE Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education

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