Letter Responding to the ACGME’s Defense of the iCOMPARE and FIRST Trials Comparing Standard and Long Work Schedules for Medical Residents
The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) response to Public Citizen and the American Medical Student Association’s November 19, 2015, letter regarding the iCOMPARE and FIRST trials fails to substantively address the major concerns about the trials’ serious ethical lapses and instead represents a misleading attempt by the ACGME to absolve itself of any responsibility for its central role in this unethical research. Public Citizen renewed its call for the ACGME to rescind its waivers of important work hour limits for medical residents that it granted to hospitals and residency training programs participating in the iCOMPARE and FIRST trials.