As a mission-driven organization, every aspect of ACPM’s work is done in the interest of supporting and advancing the field and practice of preventive medicine and our members.
ACPM’s primary vehicles to advance this mission are, of course, Advocacy, Marketing/Communications, Education and...Grants!ACPM’s grant program is a critical vehicle for ACPM to reinforce organizational core values by putting them into practice. Principal among these are “science is the basis of preventive medicine” and “diversity, equity and inclusion are integrated into all we do.”
Did you know that in 2013, and again in 2018, ACPM was selected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) – among a handful of national organizations – for funding to build capacity within the public health system to improve population health? As ACPM wraps up work on the latest 5-year funding and begins to launch a new CDC-funded 5-year mechanism, I want to highlight some of the important work developed under the most recent award that continues to impact the delivery of population health and clinical preventive services across the country.
ACPM grants can be characterized by one of five implementation models: (1) demonstration pilot projects to identify promising practices in disease prevention, (2) innovative educational content/forums, (3) communication campaigns to amplify messaging focused on an area of prevention, (4) fellowship programs and (5) guidelines/strategic roadmaps. Cross-cutting each of these models is a commitment to sound scientific methods and advancing equity.
Between 2018 and 2024, ACPM received over $23 million to develop and implement an extensive suite of grant programming and build and/or advance prevention strategies focused on acute and chronic disease prevention. Each project alone would take a book chapter with several pages devoted to the remarkable members who have dedicated their expertise and time to inform and implement these grants. Instead, I want to highlight the project that launched the 2018 award cycle and which represents the impactful role preventive medicine plays in a changing and challenged health system.
In 2018, ACPM proposed a workplan to CDC in response to Public Health 3.0 which called upon public health leaders to assume the role of “Chief Health Strategist” for their communities. Through a robust Population Health curriculum (See courses here) ACPM aimed to enable preventive medicine physicians to become “Chief Population Health Strategists” in health settings across the country, if not in name, then in expertise and spirit.
With extraordinary thought leadership from over 20 ACPM members who served as course faculty and ACPM’s Health Systems Transformation Task Force, ACPM developed a 10-course curriculum to equip preventive medicine physicians with actionable tools to implement systems changes using a clinical preventive medicine framework.
Through its grants program, ACPM is not only able to advance its mission, it is able to:
- Develop and advance evidence-informed strategies to transform individuals and health systems;
- Extend the visibility and reach not only for ACPM but also its members and the specialty through national, collaborative partnerships,
- Provide career and thought leadership opportunities for members as well as nurture the pipeline for new members.
Kate Shreve, MPH
Director, Grants and Programs