In this summer’s issue, we explore some themes about the future of medicine. The future of academic general internal medicine dominated the conversation at both the ACLGIM Winter Summit in December 2022 and the Hess Institute in May 2023. Topics included sustainability, recruitment, inclusivity, and adaptability and how we, as leaders, are tackling these challenges.

In this issue, we are rekindling the conversation about the future of our profession. Many of us were trained in rigid hierarchal organizations that failed to understand or adapt to transformative changes in our society. To this day, we still see the consequences of leadership designed to serve the “average white man” as Drs. Elizabeth Jacobs and Jeff Linder put it so succinctly at the 2022 ACLGIM Winter Summit. Dr. Amy Bonomi offers us a framework to analyze the inclusivity of our organizational culture and the questions we must ask ourselves as leaders across three domains. Dr. Pete Yunyongying dares to say what we all wish was not true: in the current system, health care, like food at a restaurant, is a commodity subject to the vagaries of the free market. It is up to us to decide what principles we need to compromise on and which values we hold sacrosanct that will differentiate us from others in the market. Finally, Dr. Mark Earnest ties together all the above themes by showcasing the work that was done at the Annual Hess Institute during the #SGIM23 in May 2023. 

We hope that the June 2023 issue provides a basis for introspection for us as leaders in the field. In addition, we also hope that it provokes conversation within your institutions on how we may come together to face the challenges that await us and future leaders in academic general internal medicine.