Catalyzing change in medical education

In 2013 the AMA launched its groundbreaking “Accelerating Change in Medical Education” initiative—an ambitious effort to rebuild medical education from the ground up. Through deep work with a consortium of 37 medical schools and 11 AMA Reimagining Residency grant teams, the initiative was a catalyst for transformative change that has inspired the entire medical education community to work toward creating a system that trains physicians to meet the needs of today's patients and to anticipate future changes.

In 2023, under the leadership of Sanjay Desai, MD, group vice president and chief academic officer, the AMA placed a new level of strategic focus on four high-priority areas in medical education:

• Competency-based medical education (CBME)
• Equity, diversity and belonging
• Precision education
• Transitions across the continuum

As part of its evolution, the program has streamlined its name but not its mission or vision of the future. Through the new AMA ChangeMedEd^® initiative, the AMA is concentrating on developing the foundational attributes of precision education and its real-world application via investments in new partnerships and exploratory pilots.

Building on the AMA’s decade-long work in CBME, transitions, and equity, diversity and belonging, the initiative will help lay the groundwork for their future application to precision education. Collectively, this work is facilitated through the formation of new groundwork teams, innovation sites and grants to leading medical education institutions across the country and focused engagement with other grant teams associated with the AMA Reimagining Residency initiative.   

This community of innovation works collaboratively with the AMA to develop, implement and disseminate bold, innovative projects that promote systemic change to better train and prepare future physicians.

Ultimately, through the ChangeMedEd initiative, the AMA will invest in and facilitate collaboration between a wide range of partners across the medical education continuum—and throughout the health care ecosystem. Our shared goals and vision will continue to inspire us to catalyze change and seek innovations that reduce barriers to lifelong learning, advance health equity and improve patient outcomes.