In June 2023, GME and its primary clinical partner, Ascension Providence Rochester Hospital (APRH), were selected to participate in the AIAMC National Initiative IX, on the "Social and Moral Determinants of Health." AIAMC (the Alliance of Independent Academic Medical Centers) is a national organization of independent teaching hospitals based in Chicago. NI IX will run from Sept. 2023 through May 2025.

For NI IX, GME partnered with the Family Medicine residency program at APRH to develop a formal community outreach curriculum.  At the 2024 Annual AIAMC Meeting held in April, FM Program Director Eleanor King presented her research on "Offering RESPITE: Residents Expressing the Stresses of the Profession in a Therapeutic Environment," detailing her piloting of an initiative to host bimonthly support groups for residents. The RESPITE initiative had 3 aims: (1) to create a safe space for residents to express their career frustrations without fear of judgment; (2) to focus on understanding peers' frustrations before rushing to generate solutions; and (3) to determine if sharing those frustrations in both oral and written form decreases residents' feelings of isolation or loneliness. Dr. King's poster was accepted by AIAMC meeting organizers as a slide presentation.

At the same annual meeting, Dr. King and GME Research Coordinator Heidi Kenaga presented a poster storyboard documenting their work on the FM community outreach curriculum across 2023-24. They benefitted from the feedback provided by other NI IX participants as well as AIAMC meeting attendees.

An APRH/GME team will attend the next AIAMC Annual Meeting in March 2025 to present the final outcomes of their work on NI IX.

For more information on the AIAMC and its initiatives, visit www.aiamc.org.