The ABIM Foundation and the American Board of Internal Medicine are focused on improving the trustworthiness of the health care system. As part of this focus, the Building Trust: Advancing Health Equity Grant Program—a $320,000 initiative to support projects that:
- (a) are led by individuals or groups of residents and faculty in internal medicine education and training; and
- (b) are intended to promote trust and create a fairer health system by incorporating health equity into the fabric of internal medicine education and training.
All project teams must include at least one faculty member with research mentorship experience and applicants are encouraged to incorporate members from across the care team.
A committee of subject matter experts will review the submitted letters of intent and invite formal proposals from selected applicants.
General Guidelines
Applications can be submitted by any resident, fellow or faculty member in internal medicine, except for those who:
- Are an employee or governance member of one of the sponsoring organizations or
- Are a member of the review committee for the grant program.
We encourage applications from individuals at institutions that have previously received a grant under this program, to:
- Build on their previous work and
- Help ensure programs are embedded in their institutions and/or spread to other institutions
The sponsors are interested in funding two categories of projects:
- Education-driven proposals that focus on providing training, skill and competency acquisition with the goal of promoting trustworthiness by reducing health disparities
- Proposals that focus on engineering care delivery to promote trustworthiness and health equity
A non-exhaustive list of the kinds of projects that could be funded under this program include:
- Training programs that incorporate health equity, particularly those that employ inter-professional education best practices
- Innovative curricular approaches to teaching about health equity
- Approaches that foster and support pathways into medicine, the health professions, and faculty and leadership positions by reducing barriers to entry for individuals from a variety of backgrounds
- Mentorship programs
- Projects to enhance diagnostic excellence and address diagnostic gaps that exacerbate health inequity
- Ideas on building trustworthiness and psychological safety among teams
- Innovative approaches to create collaborative partnerships between health systems and community-based service organizations in under-resourced communities
- Projects that foster trust and a sense of belonging within inter-professional groups that include individuals from a variety of backgrounds
- Projects that relate to the intersection between Artificial Intelligence and health equity
Projects will be evaluated based on the:
- Novelty and innovativeness of the proposed intervention
- Feasibility and potential impact, and description of the approach that will be used to evaluate quantitative (e.g., change in resident knowledge) and qualitative outcomes (e.g., evidence of trust building)
- Presence of intentional focus on building trust and health equity
- Replicability and scalability
- A focus on achieving lasting change in the applicant’s institution(s)
- Proposed utilization of relationships with community organizations
- Integration of multiple disciplines on project team
- Project leaders’ ability and commitment to communicate about their project to external audiences
- Support in existing literature/evidence
Note: Throughout the project, grantees will have the opportunity to receive advice through individual and group consultations. Grantees will be expected to participate in a learning network that will meet virtually approximately six times annually and to submit their work for presentation and/or publication during and at the completion of the project. To support this some additional funding may be made available for travel to conferences and/or publication costs.
- Grants of up to $40,000 will be awarded under this program.
- two years and will begin on or about January 15, 2026.
- specify your desired level of funding in your letter of intent.
Sponsoring Organizations
American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM): ABIM’s mission is to enhance the quality of health care by certifying internists and subspecialists who demonstrate the knowledge, skills and attitudes essential for excellent patient care.
ABIM Foundation: The ABIM Foundation’s mission is to advance the core values of medical professionalism as a force to improve the quality of health care.
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