In 2024, the Macy Foundation's annual conference focused on AI in Medical Education and brought together a range of participants who engaged in intensive discussions to produce consensus recommendations for the field. These recommendations, along with a commissioned report, will be published in a special supplement of Academic Medicine in 2025. Because of the timeliness and importance of this topic area, the Macy Foundation launched “_Artificial Intelligence in Medical Education: A Grants Program to Advance Innovation in Medical Education." Three chosen demonstration projects will each receive up to $200K over two years to describe, implement, and evaluate innovative strategies to integrate AI into medical education and advance our understanding of what the responsible, effective, and ethical use of AI in medical education will look like in the immediate future.

The Macy Foundation announced a new grants program in 2024, Disability Inclusion in Nursing: A Grants Program to Advance Innovation and Systems Approaches for Nursing Education and Practice. Support for this grants program was provided in part by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The program will fund projects that dismantle ableism in nursing education and practice and support diversity, equity, and belonging for nursing students with disabilities. Each of the projects chosen will be funded for three years with annual costs of up to $75K. The program’s Advisory Committee provided critical leadership throughout the development of this program and shared their perspectives on the rationale for the program and their hopes for its impact in a Macy Notes blog.

For the third awards cycle of the Catalyst Awards for Transformation in Graduate Medical Education, the Macy Foundation is partnering with the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). The project period has been extended to 18 months, and the award amount increased to $100K. The first two completed cycles have already demonstrated the potential of these awards to address all three of the Macy Foundation’s priority areas, make positive changes within their own learning environments, and develop important models that can be used by other programs and institutions. The seven inaugural Catalyst Awards were featured in a 2024 issue of Academic Medicine as case studies, along with six commissioned papers. Additionally, those project teams came together at a Macy-sponsored convening to present their work, share best practices, and learn from one another.

The Macy Faculty Scholars program continued to identify and nurture promising early-career educators in medicine and nursing, announcing the 2024 cohort of the Macy Faculty Scholars. The third season of the Vital Voices podcast also highlighted the 2023 cohort of Macy Faculty Scholars—six individuals working across disciplines to advance health professions education. Each Scholar shares their inspiring personal experiences and perspectives and how becoming a Scholar shaped the direction of their career and work. The series includes an introductory episode with Afaf Meleis, PhD, FAAN, LL, and Kelley Skeff, MD, PhD, two members of the Macy Faculty Scholars Program National Advisory Committee who have been with the program since its inception more than a decade ago.

The Macy Foundation continued to elevate and support voices and projects dedicated to three priority areas: Promoting Diversity, Equity and Belonging in Health Professions Education; Increasing Collaboration Among Health Professionals; and Preparing Future Health Professionals to Navigate Ethical Dilemmas. This was accomplished through grantmaking, publications and talks from our President, Holly J. Humphrey, and other efforts. In addition to the RFAs listed above which address one or more of our three priorities, the Macy Foundation provided board grant support to the University of Wisconsin to implement and evaluate a novel curriculum to prepare surgeons to navigate difficult ethical treatment decisions with patients and their families. The Macy Notes blog featured a Black History Month series, commentary from Dr. Humphrey on the critical importance of an updated social contract for residents in medical education, and insight on fostering humanism in health care from Dr. Kimberly Manning. Additionally, Dr. Humphrey authored a STAT News op-ed on the importance of integrating the humanities into medical education and appeared on Don Berwick and Kedar Mate’s Turn on the Lights podcast discussing challenges facing medical education.