The next accreditation system: stakeholder expectations and dialogue with the community

In February 2012, in an article in the New England Journal of Medicine,1 the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) provided an initial description and the rationale for the Next Accreditation System (NAS). We follow up with this piece, which reflects on questions about the NAS, as a starting point for a dialogue with the community, and as the first in a series of articles that will describe key attributes of the NAS, offer practical guidance to programs and sponsoring institutions, and solicit stakeholder input. Dialogue with the community will be helpful in answering questions and in allowing the ACGME to clarify and refine certain elements of the NAS. This dialogue needs to be mindful that many details of the NAS are yet to be finalized. In communicating about the NAS, ACGME, thus, must balance a timely response to the community's desire to learn more and the need to have details well established to avoid a need to make changes after details have been released to stakeholders and the public.