Looking Forward to a Brighter 2021

Colleagues,

After such a difficult year, it was with great relief that we said goodbye to 2020, even as circumstances required us to temper our celebrations. We were unable to surround ourselves with family, friends and loved ones as we marked this temporal turning point that we all hope will lead to better, brighter and healthier days. Yesterday’s violent breach of the Capitol reminds us that, as we hope for the best, we must also acknowledge that a new year will not erase the significant loss and pain of the year before, nor will it automatically heal what divides us.

Yet, we have reasons to be hopeful. Even amid deadly chaos, our democracy survives. Its resiliency brings us renewed faith in our institutions, and Congress, as one of their last acts of 2020, took action to expand the physician workforce by reauthorizing important graduate medical education (GME) programs, including the Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education Program. AACOM has consistently and strongly advocated for this vital program, which has a proven track record of advancing healthcare in rural and medically underserved areas.

Congress also funded 1,000 new Medicare-supported GME positions, lifting a nearly 25-year cap and supporting physician training at both rural and urban teaching hospitals. The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically exacerbated our physician shortage, which was dire even before the pandemic. Supporting residency training will be an important part of addressing this critical issue.

And although the pandemic continues to ravage the globe, vaccines have been approved, they are being administered and we are finally able to begin protecting our most vulnerable. The scientists who developed the vaccines have accomplished a shining achievement that will save us in countless ways. The challenge now will be to vaccinate as many people as quickly and safely as we can.

AACOM remains wholly committed to engaging health professions students in the vaccination effort through the Students Assist America initiative. As COVID-19 continues to put our healthcare systems across our communities on life support, we urge federal and state leaders to give the tens of thousands of students across the health professions the opportunity to help vaccinate our population and ease the burden placed on our healthcare professionals, who are increasingly burned out and stretched thin.

Along with the public health crisis brought on by the pandemic, racism and racial violence continues to claim the lives of African Americans, who have suffered disproportionately from COVID-19 and our healthcare system’s structural inequities. After the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and, tragically, many others since this summer, AACOM recommitted to working to eradicate racism. As one of several steps toward that effort, AACOM recently launched an adaptive workgroup: Arming Osteopathic Medical Education to Address Racism in Healthcare. Under the leadership of Barbara Ross-Lee, DO, the group will identify opportunities to influence and facilitate colleges of osteopathic medicine to incorporate systemic strategies promoting inclusion and diversity that empower all future osteopathic physicians to achieve and assure excellence in healthcare delivery and the elimination of minority health disparities. We look forward to helping our colleges produce physicians who reflect excellence in the inclusive fabric of our diverse nation.

Looking ahead, this March will bring the 2021 National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) Match, which will be the second to take place under the fully implemented single GME accreditation system. AACOM once again congratulates the osteopathic medical resident physicians who matched in record numbers during the 2020 cycle, and continues to support the osteopathic medical education (OME) community in preparation for the upcoming NRMP Match, which is just two months away.

We also look forward to virtually connecting with all members of the OME community this April during Educating Leaders 2021, the AACOM Annual Conference. Please save the date and plan on joining us from April 20-22.

As we begin to see the light slowly cresting over the horizon, we must recognize the role we all play in illuminating the future. Our healthcare and education systems’ long-term recovery from the virus and other challenges will require the continued dedication of us all. I look forward to working with all of you to make 2021 not only a year to look forward to, but also a year to look back on with warmth, joy and pride.

Robert A. Cain, DO
AACOM President and CEO