Call for Proposals: Physician Wellness Culture Awards

UC San Diego Health and Sanford Institute for Empathy and Compassion Join Forces to Support Physician Wellness

About the Physician Wellness Culture Awards

This Call for Proposals is intended to solicit applications for investigations that will advance the UC San Diego physician wellness culture.  

In an effort to enhance empathy and compassion in healthcare, the Sanford Institute for Empathy and Compassion has generously committed funding to support UC San Diego Health’s research and education on physician wellness. This commitment supports multiple educational initiatives, including UC San Diego Health Physician Wellness Grants, which study the drivers of and interventions for wellness.

 AWARD TYPES

GENERAL GUIDANCE 

• Proposals should include specific aims and proposed conduct of the initiative. 
• These funds are intended for support of impactful initiatives; salary support should not be a major portion of the proposed budget.   
• Proposals focused on general faculty development, academic mentorship or research that does not inform physician wellness practices will not be considered. 
• The turnaround time on reviews and funding decisions is variable. We recommend considering this if you're interested in an intervention that includes a fixed-date external event, like a community fitness activity.
• Principal Investigator: At least one principal investigator must be a UC San Diego physician. Co-investigators are not required to be physicians.   

Review Criteria and Process

Preliminary Review by the UCSD Physician Wellness Steering Committee

The UC San Diego Physician Wellness Steering Committee (without conflict for the application under consideration) will review and score applications based on both sets of criteria below: 

• Sanford Institute Criteria: 
• Alignment - With the mission of the Sanford Institute for Empathy and Compassion (see end of document)  
• Measures - Rigor of evidence to be produced (appropriate use of outcome metrics) 
• Sustainability – Clarification if this study is a standalone proof of concept or intended to be a durable innovation. 
• Physician Wellness Steering Committee Criteria: 
• Local impact on UC San Diego physician wellness culture - this includes scalability and affordability (if successful, could be expanded across UC San Diego Health) 
• Novelty 
• Feasibility and pragmatics - some proposals may benefit from conversation with operational teams who will be impacted or who may be working in the same focus area.   

Proposals may be returned by the Steering Committee to the investigator if they: 

• do not meet the criteria above,  
• require revision before preliminary approval by the Steering Committee,  or require investigation of operational dependencies or implications by the Physician Wellness Office. 

Final Review by the Sanford Institute for Empathy and Compassion

 If a proposal is reviewed favorably by the Physician Wellness Steering Committee, they will recommend the proposal for review by the Sanford Institute’s grant reviewers. The Sanford Institute’s reviewers will communicate directly with the investigators once they’ve received a proposal from the Steering Committee. 

Application Process and Timeline 

Submit proposals and queries to: physicianwellnessadm@health.ucsd.edu 

Application Requirements

Please include the following required documents as a full application package and email to physicianwellnessadm@health.ucsd.edu. 

SANFORD INSTITUTE FOR EMPATHY AND COMPASSION

The Institute represents an unprecedented blending of two parallel themes: employing the unyielding rigor and tools of science to establish the neurological basis for empathy in the brain to identify the mechanisms that transform compassion from biology to behavior, and experimenting with and developing new ways to teach and instill empathy and compassion in clinicians currently practicing and in the teaching of future generations of health professionals.

The Institute aims to:

• Bridge those who explore the neurobiology of empathy and compassion with educators to create curricula aimed at enhancing and sustaining empathy and compassion in students and physicians for both self and others.
• Develop and disseminate validated curricula for empathy and compassion to inform medical education at UC San Diego, across the U.S., and internationally.
• Through these efforts, mark the Institute as an international thought leader and motivator of system change in enhancing empathy and compassion in healthcare.
• Invent and adapt curricula for empathy and compassion to educate others, including professionals and the population at large.
• Pursue research and develop curricula that advance empathy and compassion in support of social justice, especially in the context of human healthcare.

Previous Grant Recipients