www.fmec.net

March | 2026

The 2026 Annual Meeting (September 24-26, 2026) will be held at Harrah’s Resort in Atlantic City. Registration for the Residency Fair and for exhibits and sponsorships will open on Monday, March 23. Watch your email and think now about which faculty and resident you will register as part of your Residency Fair booth. Registration for all individuals will open on Monday, April 20. See other deadlines in the key meeting dates on the FMEC website.

New Virtual CE Event for Residency Program Coordinators

Since 2023, FMEC has convened coordinators and other GME staff from the region’s 220+ residency programs to network, share information, and advise FMEC on what they need to help make your residency programs successful! Recently, FMEC completed a simple survey about their challenges, as well as their interest in convening for a formal education event. Thank you SO MUCH to more than 25 coordinators who joined our last meeting and completed our survey!

FMEC has scheduled its 2026 Coordinator Conference to be held virtually on June 18, 2026 from 9:30am to Noon. Registration will open in April 2026 and be free to any staff at family medicine residency programs or medical schools within the FMEC region.

The conference is both an opportunity to learn and to share, and FMEC is issuing a call for submissions to create the agenda. Please consider using your expertise to submit to speak and/or organize a discussion group to make this meeting as successful and relevant as possible. We encourage coordinators and other GME staff to review the FMEC Coordinators Conference Submission Overview, which provides more detail on the session types, topics suggested through the FMEC 2025 residency coordinator survey, information needed for the submission, and more. When you are ready to submit, please visit the link below:

FMEC Board Opportunities

The FMEC Board of Trustees will have multiple Member-at-Large position opportunities in 2026. Terms will begin after the FMEC Annual Meeting in September 2026 and run for 3 years, with the potential to serve again or assume an Officer position. Candidates must be in the FMEC region (14 states +DC – see the list on the FMEC website). FMEC membership (either individual membership, or membership via an FMEC Partner organization – see the FMEC Partner list) is encouraged. Active participation in the FMEC via speaking at or helping plan the Annual Meeting, participating in a learning collaborative, or other means will contribute to a strong application. The FMEC Board is open to family physicians as well non-physician faculty, program coordinators or other staff, AAFP chapter staff, and more. Watch your email for the call for nominations.

FMEC Awards

Get your nominations ready! The 2026 FMEC Awards Program will open on March 27, 2026. Nominations are accepted for three career achievement awards (Family Physicians Changing Our World, Mid-Career Faculty Achievement, and Emerging Leaders) and submissions are accepted in the creative writing and arts categories (This We Believe, Creative Writing, and Visual Arts).

Update Your FMEC Contacts

FMEC regularly communicates to all 220 Program Directors and Coordinators in our northeast US region, as listed in the ACGME and AAFP program directories. Your program may have other administrative staff, such as GME managers or staff who coordinate scholarly activity, who should also be receiving information from FMEC such as our Call for Submissions. To confirm who we have on our list and add individuals, contact Shayla Rammel at shayla.rammel@fmec.net. 

PracticeLink: Supporting Residents on the Journey to Their First Practice

Becoming a doctor is hard — finding your first job doesn’t have to be. PracticeLink is the trusted career resource and job board for physicians in training and beyond. Through the First Practice Fund™, PracticeLink offers scholarships designed to help residents and fellows prepare for life after training. In addition to scholarship opportunities, PracticeLink provides free CV reviews, Lunch & Learn sessions for GME programs, and the Surviving and Thriving in Residency podcast, featuring real stories and practical career advice from physicians and industry experts. Visit PracticeLink.com to explore these free resources designed to make your career search easier and more rewarding. For GME programming or First Practice Fund™ scholarship details, contact Charles Lowry, Director of GME Relations, at Charles.Lowry@practicelink.com.

SAVE Yourself: Find a New IDR Plan

Last December, the Department of Education formally announced the end of the SAVE plan. Months later, however, millions of borrowers remain enrolled in SAVE with little additional guidance on how or when repayment transitions will occur. While no official deadline has been issued, experts suggest that borrowers should consider switching plans now rather than waiting. WHY IT MATTERS: Although SAVE has been formally ended, many borrowers remain on the plan without clear transition instructions. PAYE and ICR are currently available but will no longer accept new applications after July 1, 2026. Borrowers already enrolled in PAYE or ICR before that date may remain until those plans are phased out in 2028. IBR remains available and will continue even after other IDR plans are eliminated. Waiting may limit your options if certain plans close to new enrollment.

If you are currently enrolled in SAVE, it may be in your best interest to transition to a new repayment plan before deadlines restrict your options. Our partners at Navigate Student Loans can walk you through the available plans, timelines, and strategic considerations to help you choose the right path forward. FMEC partners with Navigate to help you make informed decisions about your repayment options. Use this special link so Navigate knows we sent you for your free 15-minute discovery session: https://navigate.as.me/FMEC.

Young Breast Cancer Survivors

FMEC has launched a project to improve the quality of life for young breast cancer survivors—especially young Black women and those with metastatic breast cancer—by equipping family medicine residency programs with evidence-based psychosocial education and support strategies. This spring, FMEC will offer a 30-60 minute curriculum (slides, script, and facilitator guide) for your noon conferences or other didactic sessions. We will also launch a quality improvement collaborative to put those lessons into action (Performance Improvement AAFP Prescribed Credits anticipated). Sign up now to receive more information; email Rebecca Bouck at rebecca.bouck@fmec.net.

PC4AA Event on April 14, 2026

The next Primary Care for All Americans (PC4AA) Teach-In/Learn-In event will be held on Tuesday, April 14, from 8:30-9:30pm EDT. Dr. Jonathan Fitzsimon, family physician and Medical Lead of the Renfrew County Virtual Triage and Assessment Centre, to explore how hybrid and virtual care models are expanding access in rural and underserved communities. See this LinkedIn page for more info and register here: https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/sl/arx0XPQ.

Pulse – an Invaluable Resource for Educators and Learners

FMEC invites you to discover
Pulse - voices from the heart of medicine (pulsevoices.org). Pulse is an online publication founded by FMEC members in 2008 and nourished at FMEC Annual Meetings. Now with 10,000 subscribers, Pulse is a rich source of concise, powerful first-person healthcare stories written by residents, patients, physicians and other health professionals, medical students and caregivers. Subscriptions are free. If you subscribe to Pulse, you'll receive one email every Friday with a first-person story (or poem) about giving or receiving health care. You can also gift Pulse subscriptions to others and donate to support this important resource.

Joining FMEC as an individual or institution gives you discounts! Programs who are FMEC Partners receive $300 discounts on their Residency Fair booths, and individuals who join, or receive complimentary memberships through an FMEC Partner organization, receive $50-75 discounts on registration. Join or renew now so you get your discounts on the 2026 Annual Meeting!

Also, institutions that join at the Silver ($2,500) Partner level and above get access to the FMEC’s Special Edition newsletter to post their job and fellowship openings. That’s one fee for an entire year of posting job ads! Read more about Special Edition and share the information with your recruiting department in this FMEC Special Edition Overview. Job hunting? Check out the latest editions of the FMEC’s Special Edition newsletter here.

FMEC can “bundle” your invoices for Partnership dues, Residency Fair booths, and faculty and resident individual registrations. We can also invoice your program at specific times during the year, for instance if it’s easier for you to pay at the beginning of your fiscal year, or you have funds left at the end of the fiscal year to put toward next year. If you would like special handling of your payments to FMEC, contact Shayla Rammel at shayla.rammel@fmec.net. 

Donate Today

The Nik Zervanos, MD, Student Scholarship program has brought nearly 8,000 medical students to FMEC meetings over the last 20 years. Please help continue the great work started by Dr. Zervanos and donate to the Nik Zervanos, MD, Student Scholarship program. Help us bring over 300 students to the 2025 Annual Meeting in Cleveland! Donors (individuals, residency programs, medical staff, etc.) are recognized on the FMEC website and on signs and slides at the meeting.

A selection of upcoming family medicine and primary care meetings, nationally and in the FMEC region. If you have a meeting to be listed, please email jennifer.stamper@fmec.net.

• Apr. 1-5 – SNMA Annual Medical Education Conference, Pittsburgh, PA
• Apr. 15-19 – ACOFP Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL
• May 1-5, 2026 – STFM Annual Spring Conference, New Orleans, LA
• May 2-6 – STFM Annual Spring Conference, New Orleans, LA
• Jul. 30 – Aug. 1 - AAFP FUTURE Conference, Kansas City
• Aug. 31 – Sep. 2 – STFM Conference on Practice and Quality Improvement, Palm Desert, CA
• Sep. 24-26, 2026 – FMEC Annual Meeting, Atlantic City, NJ
• Oct. 20-24– AAFP FMX, Nashville, TN
• Sep. 9-11, 2027 – FMEC Annual Meeting, Baltimore, MD