Physician Training & Accreditation
Clear answers to the questions policymakers, journalists, and patients are asking about residency, accreditation, and the system that prepares physicians for practice.
Why This Matters
Physician education and training involve many organizations, responsibilities, and requirements that are often misunderstood. This site was created to help policymakers, journalists, residents, fellows, healthcare leaders, and members of the public better understand how physician training works, who is responsible for what, and the role accreditation plays in preparing physicians for practice.
Explore the Basics
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How Doctors Train
After earning a medical degree, every physician in the United States completes a residency — a period of supervised clinical training that typically lasts 3 to 7 years depending on the specialty.
Who Does What
The Medical Training Ecosystem: Who Is Responsible for What
Understanding Accreditation
Accreditation is the independent process of setting educational standards for medical training programs and verifying — through structured review — that those programs meet them.
The Physician Training Journey
Learn how physicians are trained, who oversees the process, and how accreditation supports high-quality medical education across the United States.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Accreditation?
Accreditation is a process used to evaluate whether an educational institution or training program meets established standards for quality.
In Graduate Medical Education, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) accredits sponsoring institutions, residency programs, and fellowship programs. Accreditation indicates that a program meets requirements related to curriculum, faculty, supervision, resident experience, patient safety, and the clinical learning environment. The ACGME accredits programs and institutions—not individual physicians.
Who licenses physicians?
Physicians in the United States are licensed by the medical board in each state or jurisdiction where they practice.
State medical boards review a physician’s education, training, examinations, and professional history before granting a license. They also establish rules for medical practice and may investigate complaints or take disciplinary action. The ACGME does not license physicians.
What is the difference between accreditation and certification?
Accreditation applies to educational programs and the institutions that sponsor them. For example, the ACGME accredits residency and fellowship programs that meet its educational standards.
Certification generally applies to an individual physician. Medical specialty boards certify physicians who have met defined standards for education, training, knowledge, experience, and skills in a specialty or subspecialty.
In simple terms, a program is accredited, while a physician is certified. Board certification is separate from the medical license required to practice medicine.
Who Funds Physicians Training?
Graduate Medical Education is funded through several public and private sources.
Medicare provides significant funding to eligible teaching hospitals through Direct Graduate Medical Education payments and Indirect Medical Education payments. Other funding may come from Medicaid, the Department of Veterans Affairs, federal programs administered by agencies such as the Health Resources and Services Administration, state and local governments, teaching hospitals, health systems, and other sponsoring organizations.
Funding arrangements vary by institution and program, and some hospitals fund residency positions beyond the number supported by Medicare.
Does the ACGME run the Match?
No. The ACGME does not run the Match.
The National Resident Matching Program, commonly known as the NRMP, administers the Main Residency Match and many fellowship matches. The ACGME establishes accreditation and educational standards for residency and fellowship programs, while the NRMP operates the matching process that connects applicants with participating programs.
Some specialties use matching organizations other than the NRMP.
