No. The Annual Update is an important way for programs to provide the most up-to-date program information to allow the Review Committees to understand their activities related to educating their residents/fellows, especially in light of disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Delaying the collection of this information is not possible because of the processing necessary to deliver it to the Review Committees to use in making accurate and timely decisions regarding the accreditation status of every program, starting at their winter meetings.
The ACGME appreciates that programs in many areas of the country may be significantly affected by the care of COVID-19 patients at any time. The ACGME has made many modifications in the past several months to ADS to make data entry easier this year, including:
- There are fewer questions in the Annual Update this year; specifically, there are significantly fewer narrative questions relative to last year.
- The narrative questions that remain auto-populate with the response from the last academic year.
- The instructions for the Faculty Roster have been edited to more clearly stipulate who should be listed in ADS.
- Programs are required to provide a preliminary response to every question in ADS during the Update Window, but they can add and edit the response through the end of academic year.
The changes in ADS were highlighted during webinars for coordinators and program directors. The webinars can be viewed in the ACGME’s online learning portal, Learn at ACGME.