2024 Innovation Fund: Request for Proposals

1) Increasing rates of screening and diagnosis while promoting care continuity

• Community-driven approaches that not only raise disease awareness but also enable community members to address the structural barriers to screening with their partners (e.g., policymakers, healthcare organizations, public health agencies)
• Team-based (clinical and non-clinical, such as CHWs and navigators) and patient-engaged approaches to promote continuity at each stage of the patient journey (from awareness to ongoing care and beyond), based on a comprehensive understanding of patients' clinical and social needs and community-based assets

2) Widening the capacity and accessibility of specialty care services and linkages to critical non-clinical services

• Models to deepen the integration of primary care and specialty care services and promote shared accountability between providers
• Delivery of integrated services with community-based organizations and human services providers
• Community-engaged processes to reduce social risk factors and address patients' health-related social needs

3) Enhancing the quality, safety, and experience of care for patients and promoting adherence and satisfaction

• Building practical capabilities among physicians and other clinicians to address the root causes of unequal treatment in care (e.g., through improvement science)
• Participatory processes with communities for service design and delivery
• Embedding personalized care into clinical policy and practice, marrying a comprehensive understanding of racism in outcomes with the delivery of evidence-based care (e.g., biomarker testing)

4) Shifting institutional and system-wide policies and practices to deepen long-term accountability for equity

• Redesigning payment policies to incentivize improved access to high-quality providers across specialties and geographic shortage areas
• Enhancing and sustaining the resourcing of safety net providers (e.g., through innovative financing or reimbursement mechanisms that enhance equity and clinical quality)

5) Increased training program capacity and matriculation/completion rates for practitioners/clinicians* who are underrepresented in medicine and clinical care delivery (with a priority on specialty care)

^{*Practitioners/clinicians may include a variety of healthcare practitioners that support a multi-disciplinary care team (e.g,. specialty care, community health workers, nurse practitioners, and other allied healthcare professionals)}

• Programs that allow medical schools and other training programs (e.g., nursing) to expand their capacity to train more students, support policy change related to training capacity or pilot more expansive models for medical school education
• Policy and practice changes that address/mitigate opportunities for bias and structural inequities in faculty assessments of residents, reducing dismissals of clinicians/trainees of color
• Advancements in industry-wide mechanisms that address barriers to entry for clinicians that are underrepresented in medicine and clinical care delivery and hold training institutions accountable to care for and retain trainees of color

6) Increased retention, reduced turnover and increased satisfaction of physicians, researchers* and clinical support staff

^{*Researchers may include clinician scientists, clinical trial coordinators and more}

• Programs that provide mentorship, advocacy, networks and community development designed to help diverse groups of clinicians thrive, grow and lead
• Systems of accountability for the growth and development of practitioners/clinicians of color, efforts to mitigate the “minority tax” imposed on students and faculty of color
• Evidence generation and activation on efforts to inform strengthened student or trainee advocacy networks to build inclusive communities and effectively advocate for change