EDITORS' CORNER
Key Takeaways
- The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education has disbanded its Department of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and eliminated DEI-related mandates due to new federal guidance.
- Federal directives prohibit accrediting bodies from enforcing DEI initiatives, prompting ACGME to revise its accreditation standards and policies accordingly.
- Critics, including Do No Harm Chairman Stanley Goldfarb, have welcomed the decision as a move towards meritocracy in medical education, countering perceived politicization of accreditation.
A leading accreditor of graduate medical education programs has closed its “diversity, equity, and inclusion” department and eliminated related mandates, a medical advocacy group reported.
Do No Harm obtained an internal email from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education indicating that the accreditor is updating its policies in response to federal guidance.
“Recent federal directives, including executive orders and a proposed rule from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services have prohibited accrediting bodies from requiring or otherwise encouraging a focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Similar directives apply to programs and hospitals receiving Medicare payments for GME,” the email states.
“In alignment with these federal directives, the ACGME has taken several actions, including retiring DEI-specific accreditation requirements, updating the organization’s relevant policies and procedures, and closing the Department of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion,” it states.
The email also states that “updated application materials and FAQs” will be released later this month.
The accreditor has already revised its standards to reflect the change.
Its new Common Program Requirements no longer include a mandate for systematically recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce, bringing the rules into line with federal prohibitions on DEI initiatives. The ACGME also removed DEI resources from its website.
Do No Harm Chairman Stanley Goldfarb praised the decision in a statement.
“For too long, accreditors like the ACGME have gotten away with injecting identity politics into medical education. Now that they’re finally removing DEI mandates — after much scrutiny and pressure—the ACGME is taking an important step toward realigning its standards with common sense, meritocratic metrics,” the nephrologist said.
“That’s why it’s so important that organizations like ours, along with elected officials and all medical professionals, continue speaking out and holding these institutions accountable for racialized standards and quotas in medicine,” Goldfarb said.
In May, the ACGME suspended enforcement of its diversity requirements, citing “significant concerns from multiple constituents in several states and from federal Sponsoring Institutions about their ability to comply with … requirements addressing diversity in light of state or federal laws,” The College Fix previously reported.
It decided to discuss DEI requirements with the ACGME Board at its June 2025 meeting.
This followed President Donald Trump’s April executive order titled “Reforming Accreditation to Strengthen Higher Education.”
The order forbids accreditors from requiring DEI practices for approval and specifically mentions the ACGME, “which is the sole accreditor for both allopathic and osteopathic medical residency and fellowship programs.”
A June Do No Harm report criticized the accreditor’s decision to scrub DEI commitments from its website as largely “cosmetic,” as many of its DEI resources and programs remained active at the time.
