Grant program seeks to improve trust in health care, advance health equity

A new grant program, sponsored by the ABIM, ACP and other groups, intends to help the health care community “promote trust and create a more equitable health system.”

“In an environment where facts are contested and science is under attack, everyone in the health care system needs to get better at building trust as a foundation for successfully engaging patients who approach the current system with earned mistrust and often do not benefit from the best medical science could offer,” Richard J. Baron, MD, president and CEO of the ABIM and the ABIM Foundation, told Healio Primary Care.

According to a press release, projects that could receive funding include quality improvement programs to promote health equity, approaches for health systems and hospitals to demonstrate cultural competence and empathy, and collaborative partnerships between health systems and community-based service organizations in underserved communities. Grant recipients will be chosen based on several factors, including “feasibility and potential impact, replicability and scalability and novelty and innovativeness.”

The sponsors of the grants are allocating a total of $300,000, which will include awards of $20,000, $5,000 and $2,500, depending on the project.

More information about the grants and instructions on submitting a letter of intent can be found on the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine’s website. The deadline to submit a letter of intent is Dec. 10, and selected applicants will be invited to submit full proposals early next year. The grants will be awarded in spring 2021.