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July 14, 2021
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ABIM, ACP, other organizations award nearly $300K to promote health equity

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A group of health care organizations has awarded $287,500 in grants to 31 entities that pledged to blend diversity, equity and inclusion into their internal medicine education and training programs, according to a press release.

The 31 grant recipients received $20,000, $5,000 or $2,500, depending on their project, and must provide the sponsors — ABIM, the ABIM Foundation, ACP, Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine and Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation — with a report every 6 months that details progress made towards the goals outlined in their applications, said Richard J. Baron, MD, president and CEO of ABIM and the ABIM Foundation.

The quote is: "We are far from achieving health equity in the health care delivery system." The source of the quote is:  Richard J. Baron, MD.

Among the funded projects are plans to increase colon cancer screening and influenza vaccine uptake among underrepresented populations, while others will help their internal medicine residents understand the “social issues” their patients face, according to the press release.

Baron said the grants are “an effective component of the broader Building Trust campaign” that the foundation launched earlier this year.

“It has become blindingly obvious that we are far from achieving health equity in the health care delivery system,” he told Healio Primary Care. “We need a multi-component strategy, and part of it has to do with workforce and pipeline, engaging and retaining people in the field.”

Holly J. Humphrey, MD, MACP, president of the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation, said in the press release that “this past year has made it ever more clear that building trust with our patients is central to a health care system that will truly meet the needs and provide the most effective care for all.”

The fact that 170 applicants competed for a limited amount of funding highlights the increasing interest among the health care community to improve health equity, Baron added.

“People have lots of different things that are competing for their attention,” he said. “The idea that we engaged this large segment of the medical training community speaks volumes to how important we all think this work is and how hungry people in the field are to do it.”

The organizations that received grant funding were:

  • Baylor College of Medicine;
  • Brigham and Women's Hospital;
  • Columbia University Medical Center;
  • Community Memorial Health System, Ventura, California;
  • Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center;
  • Emory University;
  • Florida Atlantic University;
  • George Washington University;
  • Hennepin Healthcare, Minneapolis, Minnesota;
  • Hofstra University;
  • Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai;
  • Magnolia Regional Health Center/University of Mississippi Medical Center;
  • MedStar Georgetown University Hospital;
  • Mount Sinai West Hospital;
  • NCH Healthcare System, Naples, Florida;
  • Oregon Health & Science University Hillsboro Medical Center;
  • Riverside University Health System, California;
  • Rutgers New Jersey Medical School;
  • Stamford Health, Connecticut;
  • Stanford University;
  • University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix;
  • University of California Davis;
  • University of California San Diego;
  • University of Illinois, Peoria Campus;
  • University of Maryland;
  • University of North Carolina;
  • University of Pittsburgh Medical Center;
  • University of Texas Southwestern;
  • University of Washington School of Medicine;
  • UT Health San Antonio; and
  • UT Southwestern Medical Center.

The University of California at San Diego received two grants, according to the press release.