SAEM News

SAEM Supports the EM Community Through ACGME Changes

June 11, 2026

Yesterday, the ACGME announced final approval of a major revision to the Program Requirements for Graduate Medical Education in Emergency Medicine (EM). The new requirements take effect July 1, 2028, giving programs two years to review, plan, and prepare.

As the academic home of emergency medicine, SAEM is committed to helping our members understand and prepare for changes that shape residency education and the future of our workforce. 

The revision touches nearly every part of residency training. Among the most significant changes:

• Required clinical experience in both high-resource and low-resource emergency departments
• New patient volume and critical care minimums tied to program size
• A restructured didactic model built on annual synchronous hours, with individual resident attendance requirements
• Week-based curriculum minimums for critical care and pediatrics, a dedicated point-of-care ultrasound experience, and an expanded list of key index procedures
• Faculty supervision standards based on completion of EM residency training
• A broader emphasis woven throughout the requirements on health equity, patient-centered communication, trauma-informed care, and resident well-being

The ACGME also announced that the proposal to move all programs to a standard four-year format was not approved. The ACGME Board determined that additional data are needed and will develop a pilot initiative to gather that information. We will share updates as details become available.

These changes will reach every corner of our community. For program leaders and faculty, the revision reshapes didactic structure, site composition, and supervision standards. For residents, it changes where and how training time is spent. For students considering EM, it will shape how programs are organized and evaluated in the years ahead.

The approved requirements, in both clean and tracked-changes versions, are available on the ACGME Emergency Medicine Program Requirements page, and additional detail is provided in the full ACGME Announcement. We encourage program leaders, faculty, and residents to review them directly.

SAEM will support our community through this transition because how we prepare matters as much as what changes. In the months ahead, look for opportunities through our academies, committees, and meetings to understand the new requirements, share implementation strategies, and learn from one another.

We are grateful to the many SAEM members who contributed feedback throughout the revision process. Academic emergency medicine has always met change by leading it, and we will continue to represent and support our community as implementation moves forward.