AMA: $15 Million to Reinvent Residency Training

The American Medical Association (AMA) is looking for up to eight health systems and residency programs to use $15 million and make systemic changes in graduate medical education. The goal? Bring physician training in line with the day-to-day realities of the health care environment.

“The times they are a changin’” and the AMA wants physician training to keep up.

“Applying what we’ve learned through our successful initiative to create the medical schools of the future, we’re embarking on a new effort to reinvent residency training to ensure our future physicians are able to make a seamless transition into residency and ensure they’re prepared for practice—while supporting their well-being and improving patient safety,” said AMA CEO & Executive Vice President James L. Madara, M.D.

Dr. Madara told OTW, “The health care environment has changed significantly and continues to evolve, yet the overall structure of residency training has stayed relatively unchanged.”

“Clinical expertise alone is no longer sufficient to provide outstanding care to patients. Changes in health care systems mean that effective delivery of patient care requires physicians to learn new competencies that they are not currently learning in traditional residency training.”

“Integrating health systems science into residency curricula will ensure physicians learn the skills they need to deliver value-based care, improve patient safety, work in teams, understand population health, and address socio-ecological determinants of health.”

“Through the AMA’s Reimagining Residency initiative, the AMA will support up to eight collaborations among health systems and residency programs to develop innovative projects aimed at making systemic changes in graduate medical education.”

“The recipients of the new grant program will regularly work together and will join the existing AMA Accelerating Change in Medical Education Consortium—working with the consortium’s 32 medical schools—to disseminate successful innovations among institutions and organizations across graduate medical education.”

Providing background, Dr. Madara noted, “A 2014 Institutes of Medicine Report, “Graduate Medical Education that Meets the Nation’s Needs,” documented significant lack of emphasis on care coordination, team-based care, costs of care, health information technology, cultural competence, and quality improvement—competencies that are essential to contemporary medical practice. In addition, surveys of health system leaders document similar concerns about inadequate preparation for practice in the 21st century.”

Asked what sort of modifications of residency curricula they will pursue, Dr. Madara told OTW, “We are looking to support bold, creative innovations in the following areas:

• Providing a meaningful and safe transition from medical school training to residency training to preserve continuity in professional development
• Establishing new curricular content and experiences to enhance readiness for practice
• Optimizing the learning environment to support well-being among trainees, mentors, and staff

Given the success of the AMA Accelerating Change in Medical Education Consortium, we are also looking for applicants eager to collaborate with others in a community of innovation aimed at tackling the most difficult challenges in graduate medical education.”