About the Specialty Society Grant Program
The Council of Medical Specialty Societies (CMSS) launched the Encoding Equity Alliance in 2024, with support from the Doris Duke Foundation, to address the inappropriate use of race in clinical algorithms and guidelines across medicine. Through this funding opportunity, CMSS will provide grant awards to support projects that assess and audit current clinical guidance in need of review, update clinical guidance, assess the underlying evidence base, and implement evidence-based changes to advance care and improve patient outcomes for all.
Program Scope and Award Information
With support from the Doris Duke Foundation, CMSS will competitively award up to 10 one-year grant awards to CMSS members in collaboration with clinical research partners (individual/organizations) and affiliated clinical or research organizations to support efforts to assess the use of race in clinical algorithms and guidelines and advance more equitable and accurate approaches to research and clinical guidance. Grants begin July 1, 2025.
Alliance Engagement
In addition to implementing their proposed projects, grantees will participate in an Encoding Equity Learning Collaborative with other awardees to share and discuss barriers and facilitators to addressing race in clinical algorithms, success stories, and lessons learned.
Grantees will also participate in the Encoding Health Equity Summit on Tuesday, June 24, 2025 in Washington, DC, as well as the June 2026 Summit to present results.
Awardees
Congratulations to the following recipients of the Encoding Equity Grant Awards! The Alliance looks forward to supporting these specialty societies and project partners in this critical work over the coming year.
American Academy of Neurology
Partners: Harvard Medical School / Massachusetts General Hospital
Title: Evaluating the Use and Misuse of Race and Ethnicity in American Academy of Neurology Clinical Practice Guidelines
American Academy of Pediatrics
Partners: Ohio State University / Nationwide Children’s Hospital
Title: Ensuring Equity in Pediatric Clinical Guidance Development
American College of Surgeons
Partners: Creighton University School of Medicine
Title: Equity Across the Map: Redesigning Surgical Standards Beyond Race to Reflect Social, Geographic, and Biologic Drivers
American Gastroenterological Association
Partners: University of Pennsylvania – Perelman School of Medicine, Kaiser Permanente, University of Florida, University of Minnesota, Case Western Reserve University, University of Colorado
Title: Development of a framework to reassess race-based recommendations in clinical practice guidelines: a pilot for a race-based recommendation on Barrett’s esophagus
American Society of Addiction Medicine
Partners: Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School
Title: Addressing Drivers of Disparities in Opioid Use Disorder Treatment
American Society of Nephrology
Partners: Cleveland Clinic Health System, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Title: Encoding Equity: ASN eGFR Toolkit 2.0
American Thoracic Society
Partners: Beth Isreal Deaconess Medical Center / Harvard Medical School, Johns Hopkins Medicine, University of California San Francisco, Boston University School of Medicine
Title: Improving Equity in Pulmonary Function Interpretation
College of American Pathologists
Partners: Brown University, NyLa Laboratories
Title: Reassessing the Use of Race in Prenatal Maternal Serum Screening