- Medical Professionalism
- Trust in Health Care
- Building Trust Essay Contest
- Trust Practice Challenge
- 2021 ABIM Foundation Forum: Pursuing Trust Striving for Equitable Health Care
- 2020 ABIM Foundation Forum: Building Trust & Health Equity
- 2019 ABIM Foundation Forum: [Re]Building Trust – A Path Forward
- 2018 ABIM Foundation Forum: [Re]Building Trust
- The Physician Charter
- Choosing Wisely®
- Initiatives
- Grants

The ABIM Foundation, Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine (AAIM), the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM), the American College of Physicians (ACP) and the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation are focused on improving the trustworthiness of the health care system and advancing health equity.
As part of this focus, the organizations are co-sponsoring a $400,000 grant program to support projects that are (a) led by individuals or groups of residents and faculty in internal medicine education and training and (b) intended to promote trust and create a more equitable health system by incorporating diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) into the fabric of internal medicine education and training. Inter-professional projects that incorporate members from across the care team will be preferred. All project teams must include at least one faculty member.
Applications can be submitted by any resident 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 steering or review committee for the grant program. Applications that do not involve members of project teams that previously received $20,000 grants in this program will be preferred.
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 through equitable outcomes
- Proposals that focus on engineering care processes to promote trustworthiness through equity
Examples of the kinds of projects that could be funded under this program include:
- Training programs that incorporate DEI, and in particular those that employ inter-professional education best practices
- Innovative curricular approaches, particularly those that are inter-professional
- Quality improvement programs and program evaluations that advance trustworthiness through health equity
- Ideas on building trustworthiness and psychological safety among teams, including an intentional focus on recognizing bias, lack of diversity and the barriers to being heard due to hierarchical structures
- Innovative approaches to create collaborative partnerships between health systems and community-based service organizations in under-resourced communities
- Trust and a sense of belonging within racially/ethnically diverse inter-professional groups
- Approaches that foster and support diverse and equitable pathways into medicine and faculty and leadership positions
(This is not intended to be an exhaustive list.)
Projects will be evaluated based on their:
- Novelty and innovativeness of the proposed intervention
- Utilization of collaborative relationships with community-based organizations
- Feasibility and potential impact, and description of the approach that will be used to evaluate impact
- Replicability and scalability
- Project leaders’ ability and commitment to communicate their project to external audiences
- Support in existing literature/evidence
- Integration of multiple disciplines on project team
- Presence of intentional focus on building trust and equity within inter-professional teams
- Whether the proposed project fits within and contributes to a robust inter-professional education program
- Relevance to ambulatory care
Throughout the project, grantees will receive advice through individual and group consultations from a quality improvement and implementation expert as well as coaching in study design if needed. Grantees will be expected to participate in a learning network that will meet approximately four times annually.
(Applicants who do not receive grants will still have the option of participating in the network.)
We expect to provide larger ($20,000) grants and smaller ($10,000) grants under this program. Larger grants will be for two years; smaller grants can be for either one or two years. Please indicate the level of funding and (if you are seeking $10,000) the length of grant you seek in your letter of intent.
We are no longer accepting proposals for this grant program.
2021 Grants
In June 2021, the ABIM Foundation – in partnership with the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine (AAIM), the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM), the American College of Physicians (ACP) and the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation – awarded a total of $287,500 to 32 projects that incorporate diversity, equity and inclusion into internal medicine education and training.
Sponsors received 170 proposals from health systems and universities for programs designed to address increasing distrust and issues of bias and diversity in the U.S. health system. Projects were evaluated based on their:
- Novelty and innovativeness
- Utilization of collaborative relationships with other organizations, including community-based organizations
- Feasibility and potential impact
- Replicability and scalability
- Project leaders’ ability and commitment to communicate their project to external audiences
- Support in existing literature/evidence
Award Recipients
Baylor University
Waco, TXBuilding Trust Between Patients, Families and Health Care Professionals in the Intensive Care Unit
$5,000 Grant Recipient
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Boston, MADevelopment of Bias Incident Safety Reporting Tool within Internal Medicine Services at an Academic Medical Center
$2,500 Grant Recipient
Columbia University
New York City, NYResidency-Community Partnership: Cultural Humility, Community Assets
$5,000 Grant Recipient
Community Memorial
Hamilton, NYDialogues around Diversity: An Initiative to Foster Effective Communication Reducing Bias and Discrimination in the Clinical Learning Enviroment
$5,000 Grant Recipient
Dartmouth Hitchcock
Lebanon, NHDevelopment of a Self-Sustaining Justice Equity Diversity and Inclusion(JEDI) Curriculum at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center(DHMC)
$5,000 Grant Recipient
Emory University
Atlanta, GAInfluence of Gender, Ethnicity and Race in Assessment in Graduate Medical Education (InTERsect)
$5,000 Grant Recipient
Florida Atlantic University
Boca Raton, FLDiversity, Equity, & Inclusion Curriculum for Residents
$2,500 Grant Recipient
George Washington University
Washington, D.C.Incorporating Health Equity and Diversity into Internal Medicine Training: A Colon Cancer Risk Reduction Program Focused on Community Collaboration, Trust Building and Inclusion
$20,000 Grant Recipient
Hennepin Healthcare
Minneapolis, MNCompetency Based Trauma Informed Care
$20,000 Grant Recipient
Hofstra University
Nassau County, NYDevelopment of a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) for use in Medical Education and Training
$5,000 Grant Recipient
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
New York City, NYAddressing Ageism and Unconscious Bias Among Medical Students during Geriatrics Clerkship Experience
$5,000 Grant Recipient
Magnolia Regional Health Center
Corinth, MSEnhancing Education, Building Trust, and Eliminating Bias in Primary Care: A Novel Approach to Primary Care Track Resident Education in Inner-city and Rural Mississippi
$20,000 Grant Recipient
Medstar Georgetown
Washington, D.C.MedStar Social Medicine & Health Equity Track
$5,000 Grant Recipient
Mount Sinai West
New York City, NYReducing A1C Among Patients with Food Insecurity in an Urban Primary Care Clinic
$2,500 Grant Recipient
NCH Healthcare System
Naples, FLReducing Healthcare Disparities Within Immokalee
$5,000 Grant Recipient
Oregon Health & Science University
Portland, ORA Structural Competency Needs Assessment for Medical Residents to Address Structural Racism in the Latinx Population of Hillsboro, OR
$20,000 Grant Recipient
Riverside University Health System
Riverside, CACrossing the Transgender Care Gap: Building Confidence to Provide Competent and Compassionate Care Through Resident Education
$5,000 Grant Recipient
Rutgers New Jersey Medical School
Newark, NJMedical Improv Workshops to Enhance Resident Self-Reflection, Empathy and Ability to Address Patient Concerns About Bias
$5,000 Grant Recipient
Stamford Health
Stamford, CTThe I in DREAM: Implementing and assessing a residency program curriculum on Diversity, Racism, Equity, Antiracism, Inclusion, and Microaggressions (DREAiM)
$5,000 Grant Recipient
Stanford University
Stanford, CAPresence for Racial Justice: A Residency Curriculum to Foster Anti-Racism Communication Practices with Patients
$20,000 Grant Recipient
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZNavigating Difficult Conversation in Difficult Times: A Workshop Series
$5,000 Grant Recipient
University of California-Davis
Davis, CAC.O.A.C.H. (Collaborative on Coaching and Advising Housestaff)
$5,000 Grant Recipient
University of California-San Diego
San Diego, CAThe Power of Words: Improving the Use of Patient Centered Language in the EMR
$5,000 Grant Recipient
University of California-San Diego
San Diego, CAINTEGRATE FIRST: Supporting Rising First Generation Pre-Medical Students
$20,000 Grant Recipient
University of Illinois, Peoria
Peoria, ILDiversity, Equity and Inclusion Fellowship Program: Building Trust and Repairing Connections
$5,000 Grant Recipient
University of Maryland
College Park, MDImproving Care to Incarcerated Transgender Individuals with a Culturally Competent Educational Curriculum
$20,000 Grant Recipient
University of North Carolina
Chapel Hill, NCReducing Disparities through Medical Student QI
$20,000 Grant Recipient
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PAWalking the Neighborhood: Building Understanding through Community Engagement
$5,000 Grant Recipient
University of Texas Health San Antonio
San Antonio, TXHuman Rights & Asylum Medicine Elective
$5,000 Grant Recipient
University of Texas-Southwestern
Dallas, TXBuilding Trust to Improve Vaccine Hesitancy with the Hispanic Community: A Community Engaged Resident Practicum
$20,000 Grant Recipient
University of Texas-Southwestern
Dallas, TXBias and Racism Teaching Rounds
$5,000 Grant Recipient
University of Washington
Seattle, WANovel Approach for Teaching: How to Confront Difficult Clinical Encounters Dealing with Bias and Discrimination
$5,000 Grant Recipient
Learn more about the selected projects.
Sponsoring Organizations
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American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM): Since its founding in 1936 to answer a public call to establish more uniform standards for physicians, certification by the ABIM has stood for the highest standard in internal medicine and its 21 subspecialties. Certification has meant that internists have demonstrated – to their peers and to the public – that they have the clinical judgment, skills and attitudes essential for the delivery of excellent patient care. ABIM is not a membership society, but a physician-led, non-profit, independent evaluation organization. Our accountability is both to the profession of medicine and to the public. |
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ABIM Foundation: The ABIM Foundation’s mission is to advance medical professionalism to improve the health care system by collaborating with physicians and physician leaders, medical trainees, health care delivery systems, payers, policymakers, consumer organizations and patients to foster a shared understanding of professionalism and how they can adopt the tenets of professionalism in practice. |
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Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine (AAIM): The Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine promotes the advancement and professional development of its members who prepare the next generation of internal medicine physicians and leaders through education, research, engagement, and collaboration. |
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American College of Physician(ACP)s : The American College of Physicians is the largest medical specialty organization in the United States with members in more than 145 countries worldwide. ACP membership includes 163,000 internal medicine physicians (internists), related subspecialists, and medical students. Internal medicine physicians are specialists who apply scientific knowledge and clinical expertise to the diagnosis, treatment, and compassionate care of adults across the spectrum from health to complex illness. |
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Josiah H. Macy Foundation: Since 1930, the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation has worked to improve health care in the United States. Founded by Kate Macy Ladd in memory of her father, prominent businessman Josiah Macy Jr., the Foundation supports projects that broaden and improve health professional education. It is the only national foundation solely dedicated to this mission. |