CHICAGO – The American Medical Association (AMA) today kicked-off its ChangeMedEd^® 2019 national conference—convening more than 500 innovators and experts in medical education to transform the way future physicians are trained. The AMA continues to cultivate its community of innovation to build upon and share innovations developed over the past six years by the AMA Accelerating Change in Medical Education Consortium. Together, leading medical schools, residency programs, and health systems are working to create the medical schools of the future and significantly improve residency training.        

“Over the past six years, the AMA has invested more than $30 million to redesign physician training because we know that significant changes are needed to ensure future physicians are prepared to meet the needs of patients in the modern health system. By continuing to invest in and expand upon our community of innovation, we will together be able to more quickly make the changes needed to better prepare physicians to enter practice during a period of rapid progress, new technology, and changing expectations from government and society,” said AMA CEO and Executive Vice President James L. Madara, M.D. “We will continue to work with more leaders and innovators from medical education and health systems to drive the future of medicine.”

At the conference, the AMA announced the recipients of its second annual Accelerating Change in Medical Education Innovation Grant Program. The AMA awarded a total of $370,000 to 15 medical schools and institutions. Projects include innovations using technology, such as telemedicine and augmented intelligence, to ensure competency-based progression through medical training and prepare students for the modern health system. Other projects aim to address population health and student well-being.

The following 15 medical schools and institutions each received grants as noted below:

$30,000 Grants

• Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine (Cleveland, OH)
• Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons (New York, NY)
• H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute (Tampa, FL)
• Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (Bethesda, MD)
• University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (Little Rock, AR)
• University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (Dallas, TX)
• Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School (Boston, MA)
• University of California, Irvine School of Medicine (Irvine, CA)
• Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine (Richmond, VA)
• Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University (Greenville, NC)
• Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (New Brunswick NJ)

$10,000 Grants

• The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (Baltimore, MD)
• University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson (Tuscon, AZ)
• Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine (Richmond, VA)
• Rayos Contra Cancer (San Francisco, CA)

The AMA also unveiled an innovation developed by one of the recipients of the inaugural 2018 grant program. As part of its grant project, the University of Michigan Medical School created a guide to help medical students and residents understand their role in a coaching relationship. The guide, “It Takes Two: A Guide to Being a Good Coachee,” is being disseminated through the AMA Accelerating Change in Medical Education Consortium and will be available to all medical schools. It was developed as a companion to the AMA’s "Coaching in Medical Education Handbook,” which offers best practices and recommendations for medical and health professions faculty who provide training for physicians-in-training and other clinicians.

The AMA launched its Accelerating Change in Medical Education initiative in 2013 to address the growing gap between how physicians are being trained and the skills they’ll need to practice in modern health systems. Since then the AMA has invested more than $30 million to fund innovations aimed at transforming medical education. This includes $14.1 million in grants to 37 of the nation’s leading medical schools to create the medical schools of the future, and nearly $15 million through its Reimagining Residency initiative to medical schools, residency programs, and health systems to significantly improve residency training.

Throughout the conference, attendees will learn about the latest curricular innovation projects underway as part of the AMA’s Accelerating Change in Medical Education initiative. The conference features more than 100 interactive presentations from across the continuum of medical education, health professions education, health systems and learning technology—offering insights into the latest innovations in curricula, educational redesign and technology. Topics include training medical students and residents on delivering high-value cost-conscious care, using augmented intelligence and virtual reality in medical education, reducing implicit bias in medical education and training, ensuring medical students and residents are trained in Health Systems Science, and training future physicians to counsel patients on tobacco cessation.