Institutional Grant Program

The Institutional Grant Program partners international and U.S. medical schools for the purpose of exchange and curricular development. Authorized by the ECFMG Board of Trustees in 1997 on a pilot basis, the program began awarding its first grants in 1999. Three-year grants of $50,000 per year were awarded to the Indiana University School of Medicine and the Department of Family Medicine at Brown University. Both institutions have completed their three-year programs.

Indiana University
The Indiana University School of Medicine developed a very productive faculty exchange program with Moi University Faculty of Health Sciences in Kenya. Faculties of both institutions spent considerable time in exchange visits, which focused on curricular assessment. In 2001, a strategic planning workshop that focused on Moi faculty development was held in Kenya. In attendance were faculty members of both institutions as well as ECFMG professional staff. The workshop served to set priorities for the future development of medical education at Moi. There was consensus on two specific areas of need: improving the quality of teaching by implementing systems of teacher and student evaluation, and developing postgraduate medical education in critical specialties. Other areas of emphasis were encouraging continued education for faculty members; development and maintenance of resources such as libraries, laboratories, clinics, and equipment; and the integration of basic sciences into the clinical learning program.

Brown University
The Brown University Department of Family Medicine completed a similar program of collaboration with Jordan University of Science and Technology, addressing curricular reform and teaching methodologies for undergraduate competency-based medical education. There were a series of reciprocal visits, including the participation of Jordanian medical students in Family Medicine clerkships at Brown University. Another key element of the partnership was a faculty development workshop held in Jordan in 2001 to support a new curriculum which had been implemented in 2000. The workshop addressed faculty development and evaluation, program evaluation methods, and student evaluation. Existing obstacles to curricular reform were also identified, and workshop participants focused on specific recommendations for overcoming them.