2025 Health Equity Statement
As the current leaders of ABIM and the ABIM Foundation, we affirm our ongoing commitment to advancing health equity in furtherance of the missions and work of both organizations.
To that end:
- We include health equity content in our assessments, based on science and evidence related to health disparities
- We conduct structured reviews of questions (items) on our assessments, to ensure that any potentially biased questions are identified and addressed.
- We conduct research on our assessments, and we use this research to contribute to improved assessment strategies.
ABIM seeks to enhance the quality of health care by certifying internists and subspecialists who demonstrate the knowledge and skills essential for excellent patient care. As an organization that sets standards, we must ensure that our assessments reflect the needs of patients and society. Key among these needs is health equity, “a human right that allows everyone to achieve the best attainable health and outcomes, by overcoming all avoidable barriers.”1 We will continuously hold ourselves accountable to standards of fairness and seek feedback from a broad range of voices including patient voices.
Improving equity in medical care and health cannot be done alone, and we will continue to collaborate with organizations within medicine and the broader community to address health inequities and reduce barriers for those seeking to join our internal medicine workforce.
Through our programs and initiatives, ABIM and the ABIM Foundation are committed to advancing the values of medical professionalism in ways that foster trustworthiness, promote health equity, and improve care for all patients.
1 Douglass, P., Itchhaporia, D., Bozkurt, B., et al. Achieving Equitable Cardiovascular Care for All: ACC Board of Trustees Health Equity Task Force Action Plan. JACC Adv. 2024 Jul; 3(7_Part_2). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacadv.2024.1010
Our programs advancing health equity
Grant Funding
Together with partners invested in improving health care, we have supported 75 projects intended to promote trust and create a more equitable health system through our Building Trust: Advancing Health Equity Grant Program.
In addition to this grant program, the ABIM Foundation has provided one-time grants to various initiatives that support health equity, including supporting We Got Us during the COVID-19 pandemic to empower Black communities with information about vaccination, supporting The Leapfrog Group’s exploration of disparities in patient safety, enabling AFFIRM to create a playbook addressing firearm injury through a public health lens, and backing DiverseMedicine, Inc.’s efforts to evaluate their health equity programs, including Black Men in White Coats.
ABIM Foundation Forum
Each year, the ABIM Foundation brings together health system leaders, policymakers, medical students, public health experts, health educators, and others to delve into emerging or ongoing trends in health care. Since August 2020, health equity has been at the forefront of these discussions. That year, the agenda was deeply shaped by the health inequities exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, we further examined how health care organizations can promote equity, earn the trust of historically marginalized communities, and actively engage and partner with them.
At the 2024 ABIM Foundation Forum, during a health equity panel, Dr. Uché Blackstock shared her experiences as a Black physician and her disillusionment with academic medicine due to systemic barriers in addressing inequities. Her insights highlighted one root cause of earned mistrust and underscored the shortage of Black and Brown clinicians. The panel illuminated the urgent need to acknowledge past harms and continue addressing inequities within our workforce and for our patients before trust can be truly established.
