Devaluing babies: neonatal implications of proposed changes in pediatric residency training

The Accreditation Committee on Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) will host a second open comment period this summer to gather feedback on the proposed major changes to pediatric residency requirements. The proposed changes will have large-scale impacts on neonatal-perinatal medicine (NPM) practice, fellowship training, and the public health of newborns, and thus continued, vigorous advocacy from the NPM community will be required. Three of the originally proposed modifications: reduction in the minimum time allotted to critical care, removal of procedural requirements, and elimination of neonatologists from pediatric residency core faculty have the potential to impact readiness for NPM fellowship training, the neonatal workforce, and the delivery of newborn care. Analyzing and then preparing for these changes will allow NPM fellowship programs, neonatologists, and the profession to continue to ensure the health of the 3.6 million infants born each year [1].