The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) residency review committee (RC) for physical medicine and rehabilitation (PM&R) has significantly revised the core competency criteria for electrodiagnostic medicine (EDM). In particular, the number of consultative clinical encounters both performed and observed has been dramatically reduced in total by 25% from 200 to 150. It is concerning that this reduction in patient encounters may negatively impact not only the practical skill set of the newly certified physiatrist but also core foundational knowledge underpinning EDM. Further, the revised EDM core competency criteria have multiple short and long-term unintended clinical practice and reimbursement consequences to both newly certified physiatrists as well as the field of PM&R.
Dumitru et al. (Wed,) studied this question.