Shaping Healthcare through an Academy of Professional Educators
The Shaping Healthcare through an Academy of Professional Educators (SHAPE) at Corewell Health in West Michigan, was established in 2020 with the generous support of the Corewell Health Foundation. There are over 70 institutions across the nation with Academies of Educators that help promote the educational mission of a hospital, health system, or department. With the development of SHAPE, Corewell Health has joined the Academies Collaborative, an affiliate of the Association of American Medical Colleges.
In its first three years, over 70 physicians and educators have joined the SHAPE community to further develop their teaching capabilities and exchange knowledge and best practices in medical education. SHAPE leadership has also become active in the Communities of Practice group at Corewell Health and endeavors to make meaningful connections with other community-led organizations across the system.
The mission of SHAPE is to create a community of physicians and medical educators who promote a culture of educational excellence to improve health care outcomes through teaching expertise. SHAPE provides educators the following:
- Access to mini-grant applications for educational initiatives and scholarship
- Educator innovative scholar awards to provide educators the opportunity to attend a national educational training conference
- Teaching and educational scholarship consultants
- Monthly educational and research colloquium talks
- A system-wide multispecialty community of educators to share best practices in medical education
The SHAPE steering committee and Corewell Health Office of Medical Education would like to thank the philanthropy of the Corewell Health Foundation for their generous support for this initiative.
For more information on the Academies Collaborative, visit their website here.
Chairs and Steering Committee
SHAPE is co-chaired by Justin Triemstra, M.D., and Cassandra Kearney, Ph.D. Please feel free to direct any questions to them at SHAPEmeded@corewellhealth.org
Faculty Development Specialist
Associate Designated Institutional Official
Faculty Development Specialist
Associate Designated Institutional Official
SHAPE’s Steering committee consists of leaders across the medical education community.
Pulmonology and Critical Care Medicine Fellowship
Associate Program Director
Plastic Surgery Integrated Residency
Program Director
Pediatric Intensivist
Vice President, Academic Affairs
Designated Institutional Official
Pulmonology and Critical Care Medicine Fellowship
Associate Program Director
Plastic Surgery Integrated Residency
Program Director
Pediatric Intensivist
Vice President, Academic Affairs
Designated Institutional Official
Pulmonary Disease and Critical Care Medicine Fellowship
Program Director
Pediatric Hospitalist
Membership
New members are always welcome. If you are interested in joining SHAPE, please complete our online application or if would like more information, email SHAPEmeded@corewellhealth.org.
Benefits to members at Corewell Health:
- Recognition for your dedication to medical education and teaching
- Developing individual skills as teacher and researcher
- Enhancing your role in medical education
- Access to mentorship from educational leaders
- Building, creating and participating in faculty development workshops
- Access to scholarship grants and awards to fund educational scholarly projects
- A community of like-minded, passionate clinician educators
- Expanding your professional network
- Tools to work toward promotion and tenure
Services Provided by SHAPE
Click on each title below to learn more about what SHAPE offers to its members.
Monthly Research Colloquium
Monthly meetings to discuss ongoing medical education research at Corewell Health or an interactive discussion on recently published educational articles in top-tiered journals to discuss hot topics in medical education. The goal is to enhance future educational scholarship and approaches to teaching across our medical community.
Clinical Teacher Program
In addition to monthly journal clubs, research colloquium and asynchronous learning opportunities, SHAPE partners with the Clinical Teacher Program, a hybrid course on enhancing faculty’s teaching skills.
Sponsoring the Keynote Speaker at Research Day
Annually, SHAPE partners with Corewell Health’s Research Day to highlight medical education by sponsoring a key educational researcher in the broader medical community.
SHAPE offers one-on-one consulting on ongoing medical research projects with experts in qualitative and quantitative research methods. SHAPE also provides educational research modules available via workday on key research topics listed below.
- Conducting Qualitative Research: This course is designed to introduce key concepts of and approaches to qualitative research. It is intended to be a starting point for anyone interested in investigating experiences and phenomena through a qualitative approach.
- Presenting your Research: This course is designed to introduce key concepts of and approaches to presenting your research. It is intended to be a starting point for anyone who has been asked to present on a scholarly or academic talk/poster presentation.
- Medical Education Research 101: This course is designed to introduce the medical education research field. It is intended to be a starting point for anyone interested in investigating a phenomenon related to medical education.
- Curriculum (re)Design Projects: This course is designed to introduce you to curriculum development design and research. It is intended to be a starting point for anyone interested in creating research related to medical education curriculum.
Medical Education Research Grants
To better serve our SHAPE members, we are moving to a rolling deadline process. There is no longer a fixed application submission date, you can apply for funding whenever you are ready with your project (until the Grant funds are exhausted).
To apply, you must be a SHAPE member and the maximum funding request is $4,000. Funds available for internal candidates only.
Using this template, your proposal will include:
- Abstract (250 words), Statement of problem and objectives, Background or literature review, Methods, Anticipated outcomes, Impact on patient care, quality and/or safety, Plan for dissemination, Project timeline (not to exceed 12 mo. after IRB approval), Letter of support, References, Budget justification, Biosketch or two-page CV
The proposal must be focused, or integrated, with medical education. You can complete the online application to apply for a grant
Funds can be used toward a variety of project needs. Most commonly, funds are used to:
- Support/pay for standardized patients in a simulation study
- To purchase technology or materials for a project (i.e., tablets, computers, software, etc.)
- Pay publication fees for open access journals
- Support an expert speaker for didactic curriculum
- And so much more
Medical education projects cover a variety of topics, and you are likely already doing medical education research without even realizing it! A few examples below:
- Curriculum redesign or development
- Quality improvement projects
- Simulation scenarios and educational training
- Various faculty development initiatives
- Professional identity
A consult service designed to provide peer-to-peer feedback on teaching. If you are interested in learning more, email SHAPEmeded@corewellhealth.org
Each year, one member of SHAPE receives the SHAPE Medical Educator Award. This award is for SHAPE faculty members who stand out in their role as medical education researchers, teachers, and innovators.
Interested in joining SHAPE?
New members are always welcome.