2025 in Review: A Year of Building Trust and Advancing Medical Professionalism

In 2025, the ABIM Foundation deepened its commitment to trust at a moment when medicine needed it most. We invested in communities, equipped clinicians to navigate uncertainty, and elevated frontline voices shaping the future of the profession.

We are deeply grateful for our partners and all of you who made this work possible. Here are a few highlights from the year:

Advancing Health Equity & Strengthening Trust in our Communities

Since 2021, the Building Trust: Advancing Health Equity grant program has provided 92 grants totaling $1.6M to advance health equity, strengthen trust within communities, and build lasting partnerships.*

17 grantees engaged community members in their projects, helping deepen local relationships and ensuring the work was shaped by those most affected. Together, grantees developed 29 new curricula designed to promote trust and create more equitable health systems, reaching 3,300+ learners — including 1,200 residents and fellows.

In 2025 alone, we continued to support 43 active grantees.

Addressing Uncertainty in Medicine

Because uncertainty sits at the heart of many difficult clinical conversations, we invested in projects that help clinicians communicate more transparently and compassionately when answers are not clear. This year marked the completion of three projects supported by the 2023 Building Trustworthiness by Addressing Uncertainty in Medicine grant program.**

These grantees created:

• A free online course to help clinicians address medical uncertainty.
• A competency-based curriculum for medical students to build communication skills around uncertainty.
• An award-winning podcast sharing stories from patients and clinicians navigating uncertainty.

Investing in the Future of Medicine

Beyond our major grant programs, we funded efforts designed to strengthen the future of care, including:

• Research on medical debt and how hospitals can reduce its impact.
• A new podcast series exploring trust in medicine.
• Research on how AI affects the physician–patient relationship.
• Mentorship for International Medical Graduates practicing in rural communities.
• An international commission focused on improving communication about health and science.
• Support for five pre-med interns, all now planning to pursue medical school.

Elevating the Voices of Students and Trainees

Our fourth annual Building Trust Essay Contest invited students and trainees to share how they are building trust in their communities. This year’s four winners shared stories of listening, vulnerability, and reimagined care. Their voices show that the future of medicine is already being shaped by a generation committed to trust, humility, and human connection.

Creating Space for Dialogue and Learning

We’ve welcomed thousands into conversations about trust and medical professionalism through webinars, convenings, and our annual Forum.

This year, we:

• Hosted six webinars, engaging 500 clinicians, leaders, and community members.
• Gathered leaders at the 2025 ABIM Foundation Forum to examine professionalism in a landscape shaped by corporatization, burnout, and shifting expectations. Participants explored advocacy, accountability, and community, sparking ideas that will continue into 2026.

Recognizing and Promoting Professionalism Scholarship

We recognized three peer-reviewed articles documenting the impact of medical professionalism through the John A. Benson Jr., MD Professionalism Article Prize, whose namesake we honored for his life and legacy.

As we look ahead to 2026, we remain committed to advancing medical professionalism, building trust, and improving care.

* Funding was awarded by the ABIM Foundation, Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine, the American Board of Internal Medicine, the American College of Physicians, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation.

** Funding was awarded by the ABIM Foundation, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation.