$1 Million in New Grants to Improve Medical Care for All
June 2025
Research Will Take a Closer Look at the Role of Race in Clinical Decision-Making Tools
WASHINGTON, D.C., June 24, 2025 –
With support from the Doris Duke Foundation (DDF), the Council of Medical Specialty Societies (CMSS) is awarding eight new grants to medical specialty societies and their research partners, enabling them to take a closer look at the way race is used in medical guidelines and algorithms.
Every day, in every medical setting, peoples’ health is assessed using scales, scores, and ranges based on clinical algorithms and practice guidelines. These tools are ubiquitous – and can inform everything from the diagnosis of disease to the prescribed dosage of medication.
In many cases, patient race is a factor in these equations and guidelines, even though race can be poorly defined, inconsistent, or inaccurate, which may undermine the validity of these tools in the care of all patients. Using race to help determine care can be an irrelevant factor at best, but in some cases, it can cause harm. And all too often, “race” is used as an inaccurate proxy for a completely different variable such as environment, social drivers, or genetics, missing the opportunity to advance better approaches to treatment for all.
The Encoding Equity Alliance Specialty Society Grant Program will support a range of work, from identifying guidelines that need reconsideration, to redesigning specific recommendations, to examining the drivers of known racial inequities, and educating physicians and researchers on changes that have already been made so they can be adopted more widely as the standard of care.
“This work is at its core about quality and safety,” explains CMSS Chief Executive Officer Dr. Helen Burstin. “Over the past few years, changes to the use of race in tools assessing everything from kidney disease to pulmonary function, from UTI diagnosis in toddlers, to the risk of having a vaginal birth after a C-section, can improve the care we provide to patients. These grants further that progress by a thoughtfully re-assessing other drivers of inequities and the tools and guidelines physicians and patients rely on every day.”
The eight grantees are:
- American Academy of Neurology (AAN)
- American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)
- American College of Surgeons (ACS)
- American Gastroenterological Association (AGA)
- American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM)
- American Society of Nephrology (ASN)
- American Thoracic Society (ATS)
- College of American Pathologists (CAP)
The work these grantees are pursuing also reflects the recommendations of a recent groundbreaking report from the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM). Rethinking Race and Ethnicity in Biomedical Research offers a clear roadmap to thoughtfully and transparently consider the role of race at every stage of clinical research and clearly explains the need for doing so. The report highlights the role of medical societies, publishers, funders, and others in supporting this goal to advance better health outcomes for all patients.
“Considerable work remains to ensure that clinical algorithms and guidelines take race into account thoughtfully, so that all patients who need care receive it without delay,” said Dr. Sindy Escobar Alvarez, director of medical research at Doris Duke Foundation. “We applaud these new efforts across medicine and invite our nonprofit and federal counterparts to promote and support the medical research community’s work to evolve methodologies in line with modern science, technology, and our growing understanding of race and ethnicity in the context of medicine.”
The Encoding Equity Alliance Specialty Society Grant Program is an initiative of the Encoding Equity Alliance. Led by CMSS with support from the Doris Duke Foundation, the Alliance – with members from academia, research, clinical practice, government, publishing, and philanthropy – seeks to drive knowledge, amplify progress, develop and share best practices, and raise awareness of the need to improve rigor in the use of race in medical research.
The Council of Medical Specialty Societies (CMSS) is a coalition of more than 50 specialty societies representing more than 800,000 physicians across the house of medicine. CMSS advances the expertise and collective voice of specialty societies and the patients they serve to drive meaningful change in the future of healthcare.
The mission of the Doris Duke Foundation (DDF) is to build a more creative, equitable and sustainable future. We work across three areas: Arts & Culture, Nature, and Health & Well-being.
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Press Contact: Luise Z. Moskowitz
lmoskowitz@steegethomson.com
(267) 307-6617
