Welcome to AAMC's 2024-2025 Telehealth Equity Catalyst (TEC) Awards

AAMC Telehealth Equity Catalyst (TEC) Awards

Action Plan 7: Improve Access to Health Care for All

2024 Call for Applications 

Submission Deadline: April 16, 2024 at 11:59 p.m. ET

Background Information

The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), through the work of Action Plan 7: Improve Access to Health Care for All, seeks to support member institutions in their efforts to advance health care equity through telehealth and health technology in new and effective ways. As the digital health landscape evolves, there is a growing demand to develop, maintain, disseminate, and study telehealth practices aimed at improving access and equity.  To support this mission, for the past four years the AAMC's Telehealth Equity Catalyst (TEC) program has provided funding to AAMC member institutions throughout the country addressing equity and reducing barriers to care using telehealth modalities. For a list of past awardees, please visit: AAMC Telehealth Equity Catalyst Awards.

Program Overview

As part of the AAMC's efforts to continue supporting our members' work to advance equity, the AAMC seeks to fund $27,000 each for programs reflecting innovative contributions to health care delivery. Awardees are new or expanding programs that reduce access to care barriers using telehealth modalities and promote equitable care practices, particularly for communities that are under-resourced with limited access to health care services. Applicants are encouraged to apply for funding program discovery, launching a new program, or scaling/expanding an existing program.

Selection Criteria

Only AAMC-member medical schools and health systems are eligible for a TEC award.  All applications will be judged on a variety of factors, including but not limited to the following:

• Aims to address health care inequities (i.e., measurable, systemic, avoidable, and unjust differences in health care access, utilization, quality, and outcomes between groups, stemming from differences in levels of social advantage and disadvantage) for patients and communities.
• Describes how the clinical delivery program is intended to mitigate inequities in care delivery using telehealth
• Requires collaboration with communities and/or patients to identify barriers for specific patient populations, establish trust, and improve health outcomes for patients, especially those in medically underserved communities and provides evidence of collaboration across the health system and community.
• Outlines specific objectives, key milestones, and methods to measure the impact of the program.
• Detailed budget with a breakdown of anticipated use of funds to achieve program.
• For new projects, potential plan for future scaling/expansion or sustainability.
• Rationale for how the program may be generalizable or transferable for adoption in other health systems or training programs.

Funding Schedule

Applicants will be eligible to receive $27,000. All awardees will receive funding at the start of the program.  Funded programs will be selected at the discretion of the review committee.

Application Submission

Applicants must complete the online application form and upload an institutional letter of support and additional documents, as required, outlined in the application. Incomplete applications will not be considered or reviewed. Applicants are encouraged to develop and save their responses in a separate document before submitting the online application form.

Application Checklist (Submit no later than April 16, 2024 at 11:59 p.m. ET)

• Complete online application
• Upload institutional letter of support (see application instructions).
• Upload brief bios for collaborators (see application instructions).
• Detailed breakdown of the anticipated use of award funds to accomplish project goals
• Upload a 18-month project timeline (July 1, 2024-Dec 31, 2025) with descriptions of key milestones to help reviewers understand your project
• Optional: upload up to two additional supporting materials (see application instructions)

Application Review

Applications will be judged by a selection committee based on the selection criteria. The AAMC expects to notify applicants of final decisions by May 2024.

Requirements

Since the AAMC aims to foster a community that discusses and shares evolving best practices in promoting access and equity using telehealth modalities within academic medicine, grantees and awardees will be required to document   progress toward milestones, challenges encountered, and lessons learned. This will be accomplished by mandatory participation in the following activities:

• Awardees must participate in interviews with AAMC staff to enable a deeper understanding of the program and its implementation and to consider additional opportunities to share lessons learned with peers in other health systems and training
• Awardees will work directly in the programming and fulfillment of AAMC Action Plan 7: Improve Access to Health Care for All. AAMC will work with institutions to share generalizable approaches, strategies, and lessons learned (e.g., collaborate on resource development, participate/present in a conference, workshop, and/or webinar) to improve access and equity in health care through clinical This includes participation in two virtual Education and Networking Sessions (Fall 2024 & Spring 2025) and a final presentation virtual symposium (Fall/Winter 2025).

Questions?

Please direct all inquiries and communications to Katie Reget at kreget@aamc.org