Special Feature

AMA to invest $10 million for bold initiatives to change medical education

The AMA has announced it will award $10 million to medical schools to fund bold innovations in medical education.

The announcement by James L. Madara, MD, AMA executive vice president and CEO (pictured above), came during a Jan. 17 event at Rush Medical College of Rush University in Chicago that was simulcast at five other medical schools:

• Boston University School of Medicine
• UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
• University of Tennessee Health Science Center College of Medicine
• University of Texas Medical School at Houston
• University of Toledo College of Medicine

More than 450 medical school deans, faculty, AMA leaders and medical students participated in the event, which also was broadcast live by webcast.

"The AMA wants to bring medical schools together to foster and accelerate the kind of bold changes that will help them not only succeed but thrive in the evolving health care environment," Dr. Madara said.

A student at Rush Medical College welcomes the funding initiative. "It's our education we're talking about, so I think it's a wonderful idea," said third-year student Katy March. "And we're right here every day, so our ideas are important."

The AMA is seeking proposals from allopathic medical schools in the United States for innovative projects that support the significant redesign of undergraduate medical education. These projects will:

• Develop new methods for teaching and/or assessing key competencies for medical students, including the use of flexible, individualized learning plans.
• Promote exemplary methods to achieve patient safety, performance improvement and patient-centered, team-based care.
• Improve medical students' understanding of the health care system and health care financing.
• Optimize the learning environment to support development of professional values and ideals.

To help disseminate innovations among schools, medical students are encouraged to share their ideas on how to change medical education via social media or email.

The AMA is committing $10 million over the next five years to partner with eight to 10 medical schools and support their efforts to accelerate change in medical education. Additionally, the AMA will convene a consortium of grant recipient schools to share ideas, discuss outcomes and plan for wide dissemination of innovative models.

Proposed projects will help define best practices and essential competencies that enable medical students to learn throughout their professional lives to deliver the highest quality of care while optimizing the quality and efficiency of health care.

Medical schools interested in submitting proposals must file a letter of intent by Feb. 15. Full proposals are due May 15. Grant recipients will be announced by July 1, with project implementation set to begin by Sept. 1. View more grant details.

Medical students are invited to share "best practices" at their medical school and brainstorm new ideas via social media or email. Learn how.

In related news, Dr. Madara, in a recent interview with Forbes magazine, described the need for change in medical education and discussed the AMA's other two strategic focus areas, improving health outcomes and shaping payment and delivery models to enhance physician satisfaction.