Invites medical schools to submit proposals for bold, innovative projects to transform medical education

(HealthNewsDigest.com) - CHICAGO - January 17, 2013 - The American Medical Association (AMA) today announced a $10 million competitive grant initiative to attract bold, innovative projects to transform the way medical schools train future physicians. To showcase the major new initiative, the AMA joined with medical students, medical school administrators and faculty on six campuses across the nation.

"Rapid changes in health care require a transformation in the way we train future physicians," said AMA President Jeremy A. Lazarus, M.D. "The AMA is deeply committed to redesigning undergraduate medical education to prepare the medical students of today for the health care of tomorrow."

Across the continuum of medical education, the gap between how physicians are trained and the future needs of health care continues to widen. The AMA is seeking to attract and support bold, rigorously evaluated innovations that align medical student training with the evolving needs of patients, communities and the changing health care environment.

As part of the "Accelerating Change in Medical Education" initiative, the AMA will provide $10 million over the next five years to fund 8-10 projects that support a significant redesign of undergraduate medical education. Interested medical schools must submit brief proposal ideas by February 15.

Specifically, funding will be awarded to medical schools for:

• Developing new methods for teaching and/or assessing key competencies for medical students and fostering methods to create more flexible, individualized learning plans.
• Promoting exemplary methods to achieve patient safety, performance improvement and patient-centered team based care, and improving understanding of the health care system and health care financing in medical training.
• Enhancing development of professionalism throughout the medical education learning environment.

"In keeping with the AMA's historic leadership in all levels of physician education, we are excited to continue our work to improve medical education for patients and physicians," said Dr. Lazarus. "We hope to find and support proposals to develop innovative new education models that can be duplicated in medical schools across the country."

From the initial pool of proposals, the AMA will invite a select group of medical schools to submit a full proposal by May 15 and will conduct a thorough review of all materials before announcing the selected schools at its Annual meeting in June 2013.

For more information about the initiative and to view a short video, visitwww.changemeded.org.

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