Walking the Line

As chair of an academic anesthesiology department at a public institution, I have found it to be challenging at times to “walk the line” between effectively promoting advocacy for our specialty while being respectful of and compliant with the constraints and requirements inherent in a public university. It’s likely that my colleagues in other public institutions wrestle with the same concerns. A couple of years ago, when I first prepared for and provided a formal presentation to our residents on the importance of active engagement in organized medicine, I thought it might strengthen my argument to share with them any requirements by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) that supported engagement in organized medicine as a requirement of anesthesiology residency training. As a former program director, I was still somewhat familiar with Residency Review Committee (RRC) requirements for our residents’ training, but I will note that I was...