Building community trust through medical education: a four-year descriptive analysis of a national grant program

Community engagement and trust are vital to medical education and improving health. The experience of national level, extramural seed grant programs to support faculty in both education and health care delivery with the focus of building trust has not been previously reported. The authors reviewed a total of four cohorts of the "Building Trust: Advancing Health Equity" grant recipients supported by the ABIM Foundation and other funding partners. Over $1.5 million was awarded from 2021 to 2024, which represented 92 grants ranging from $2,500-$40,000 each. The geographic regions receiving the most grants and funding were the middle and south Atlantic, and the Pacific regions in the United States. University programs received more grants and funding than affiliated or community programs. The majority of project types primarily focused on developing educational curricula for internal medicine residents (68%) and engaging with local communities (19%). The approach to implementation often included service-learning and community experts (29%), quality improvement and patient care delivery methods (22%), and traditional curriculum development (21%). The most common education topic themes were health equity and social determinants of health (43%) and addressing bias in care delivery and learning environment (20%). The Building Trust grant program reflects the unique needs of local communities and supported innovative practices and educational techniques. Implementation support was provided to grantees through shared experiences and mentorship. Evaluating outcomes upon completion of grants will be an imperative next step. This serves as a model that can inform institutions and other professional organizations approaching implementation of seed grant funding.