The Haile T. Debas Academy of Medical Educators is pleased to announce twenty-four new Innovations Funding awards for the 2026-2027 academic year. Totaling just over $440,000, these intramural grants address a range of priorities in teaching and learning approaches and curricular content areas and are expected to make significant contributions to educational excellence at UCSF.

The call resulted in strong proposals for which we sought and identified additional sponsors, including Academy Endowed Chair holders, the Baum Family Innovation in Medical Education Funds, the Center for Healthcare Value, the Program for Interprofessional Practice and Education, the Office of Opportunity and Outreach, the School of Pharmacy, and the Department of Physical Therapy. The Academy wishes to acknowledge the many generous donors to the Innovations Funding Endowment Campaign, including alumni of the School of Medicine Class of 1988. In addition to our Innovation Funding Endowment donors, the Academy wishes to thank John and Mindy Baum, whose support through current-use gifts has enabled six grants this year, empowering UCSF’s clinician-innovators and educators to develop AI-focused curricula, programs, and structures to revolutionize health care education.

AI Agent-Based Development of a Behavioral Sleep Medicine Learning Application

Principal Investigators: Caterina Mosti, PhD, DBSM; Lizabeth Goldstein, PhD; Aric Prather, PhD

Co-Sponsored by: John and Mindy Baum and the Endowed Chair in Psychiatry Medical Student Education, held by Kewchang Lee, MD

AI to Support Precision Anesthesia Education

Principal Investigators: Wendy Smith, MD; Kristina Sullivan, MD; Christy Boscardin, PhD working with Kaveh Hemati, MD

Co-Sponsored by: the Sol Shnider Endowed Chair for Anesthesia Education, held by Kristine Breyer, MD

AI-A TOP-L — Artificial Intelligence–Augmented Teaching Observation Program for Lecture Feedback

Principal Investigators: Conan MacDougall, PharmD, MAS; Yvette Hellier, PharmD working with Crystal Zhou, PharmD; Tiffany Pon, PharmD; Mandy Brown, PharmD

Co-Sponsored by: the School of Pharmacy

An AI-Simulated Patient and Real-Time Feedback Tool to Enhance Serious Illness Communication Education for Medical Students

Principal Investigators: Daniel Bui, MD; Suresh, Rangarajan, MD, MSc, BBA; Teva Brender, MD working with Yulin Hswen, ScD, MPH

Co-Sponsored by: John and Mindy Baum

Centering Dilemmas: A Co-Designed Curriculum for Professional Identity Formation

Principal Investigator: Timothy Dyster, MD

Cultivating Mentorship Excellence: Developing Competencies for Mentors of Clinician Educators across Health Professions

Principal Investigators: Natalie Francis, MD; Stephanie Rennke, MD; Laura Rubinos, MD working with Andrew Lui, PT, DPT; Ricardo Lugo, DDS, MD; Marianne Hultgren, DNP, RN, CNE; Jennifer Cocohoba, Pharm.D., BCPS; Andrea Sandoval Rivera

Co-Sponsored by: the Program for Interprofessional Practice and Education

Designing an EMG AI Tutor Within UCSF’s Enterprise OpenAI Environment

Principal Investigators: Pritikanta Paul, MD; Mark Terrelonge, MD

Co-Sponsored by: the Mr. and Mrs. David George Rowe and Stephen W. Rowe Endowed Chair for Teaching in Neurology, held by Loren Alving, MD

Development and Integration of AI-Assisted Reflection Feedback into Clinical Medical Education

Principal Investigator: Nicole Thomason, MD working with Christy Boscardin, PhD, MA; Cindy Lai, MD; Andrea Marmor, MD; Will Stevens

Co-Sponsored by: John and Mindy Baum

Evidence-based, theory-driven faculty development for clinical teaching

Principal Investigators: Sam Brondfield, MD, MAEd; Timothy Dyster, MD, MAEd working with Bridget O'Brien, PhD

Co-Sponsored by: the Gold-headed Cane Education Chair in Internal Medicine, held by Lekshmi Santhosh, MD, MA

From the hospital to the community: a community visit-based curriculum for psychiatry residents

Principal Investigator: Andrew Halls, MD working with Alissa Peterson, MD; Mimi Yen Li, MD; Marysol Encarnacion, MD, MSPH

Co-Sponsored by: the Endowed Chair in Psychiatry Medical Student Education, held by Kewchang Lee, MD

HEART: Health Education for Access, Resilience and Training, A Safety-Net Curriculum at ZSFG

Principal Investigator: Rebeccah Brusca, MD, MPH working with Veronica Manzo, MD, MS; Lurit Bepo, MD, MPH; David Chia, MD, MS; Amy Ou, MD; Rebecca Berman, MD; Pooja Lalchandani, MD; Harry Cheung, MD; Sidney Ezenwugo

Co-Sponsored by: the Office of Opportunity and Outreach and the Center for Healthcare Value

I-POCUS- Unifying POCUS Training Through AI Assisted Feedback and Portfolio

Principal Investigators: Sara Obeid, MD, MPH; Damond Ng, MD, MPH working with David Jeong, MD; Ritu Bansal, MD; Trevor Jensen, MD

Co-Sponsored by: the Gold-headed Cane Education Chair in Internal Medicine, held by Lekshmi Santhosh, MD, MA

Implementation of AI-Patient Cases to Assess Clinical Reasoning Development and OSCE Anxiety among NP students: A proposed RCT

Principal Investigators: Briauna Taylor, DNP, BSN; Elizabeth Gatewood, DNP, RN, FNP working with Susannah Cornes, MD; Justin Sewell, MD, PhD, MPH; Thomas Hoffmann, PhD

Co-Sponsored by: John and Mindy Baum

Integrating AI-Simulated Patients Into the DPT Curriculum for Competency-Based Interview Skills Training

Principal Investigators: Mariano Wechsler, DPT; Vincent Ann, DPT

Co-Sponsored by: the UCSF Department of Physical Therapy

Integrating JOY: A Justice for Our Youth Curriculum Across Pediatric Training Programs

Principal Investigator: William Burrough, MD, MPH working with Javay Ross, MD; Christine Schudel, MSW, MPH

Co-Sponsored by: the Academy Chair in Pediatric Education, held by Laura Rubinos, MD and the Abraham Rudolph Chair in Pediatric Education, held by Mindy Ju, MD

Promoting health equity through advocacy: Developing a novel health advocacy curriculum for Pediatric fellow trainees

Principal Investigator: Amanda Bryson, MD, MPH working with Marissa Raymond-Flesch, MD, MPH; Sara Buckelew, MD, MPH

Co-Sponsored by: the Academy Chair in Pediatric Education, held by Laura Rubinos, MD and the Abraham Rudolph Chair in Pediatric Education, held by Mindy Ju, MD

PsychSnaps: An Electronic Outpatient Mental Health and Addiction Medicine Curriculum

Principal Investigator: Era Kryzhanovskaya, MD working with Zoë, Kopp, MD; Emma Samelson Jones, MD

Stories of the Central Valley: Interdepartmental Workshops in Narrative Medicine

Principal Investigators: Dumindra Gurusinghe, MD; Jennifer Romo, MD working with Carolyn Jameson, NP; Muhammad Khan, MD; Patrick Macmillan, MD

Co-Sponsored by: UCSF Fresno

The Hidden Curriculum Studio: An Arts-Based Reflective Workshop Curriculum Exploring Belonging and Professional Identity Formation

Principal Investigators: Maham Awan, MD; Aniqa Azim, MD working with Cindy Lai, MD; Nancy Choi, MD; Lin Li, MD

Co-Sponsored by: the Gold-headed Cane Endowed Teaching Chair in Internal Medicine, held by Elizabeth Griffiths, MD, MPH and the Academy Chair for Excellence in Foundational Teaching, held by Sirisha Narayana, MD

The Virtual CSV: Harnessing GenAI to Accelerate Precision Medical Education in Psychiatry

Principal Investigators: Karthik Sarma, MD PhD; Kaitlin Hanss, MD MPH working with Bo Hu, MD MS; Andrew Halls, MD; Andrew Krystal, MD

Co-Sponsored by: the Baum Family Innovation in Medical Education Funds and the Endowed Chair in Psychiatry Medical Student Education, held by Kewchang Lee, MD

Thoughtful Scribing: Preparing Residents to Use AI Scribes for Effective, Transparent, Intentional, and Patient-Centered Documentation

Principal Investigator: Zoe Kopp, MD working with Anoop Muniyappa, MD

Co-Sponsored by: John and Mindy Baum and the Baum Family Innovation in Medical Education Funds and the Gold-headed Cane Education Chair in Internal Medicine, held by Lekshmi Santhosh, MD, MA

Use of Artificial Intelligence to Facilitate Documentation Feedback for Internal Medicine Residents

Principal Investigator: Neil Zhang, MD, MS working with Atif Qasim, MD, MSCE; Anoop Muniyappa, MD, MS; Timothy Dyster, MD, MEd; Jamie Yao, MD

Co-Sponsored by: John and Mindy Baum and the Gold-headed Cane Education Chair in Internal Medicine, held by Lekshmi Santhosh, MD, MA

Vitals and Visions: Early Career Growth and Professional Development Coaching for Anesthesia Residents

Principal Investigators: Jennifer Woodbury, MD, MBA; Oana Maties, MD working with Alice Barnes, MBBS; James Brandes, MD, MBA, MLS; Kaveh Hemati, BS, MD; Wendy Smith, MD; Kristina Sullivan, MD; John Turnbull, MD

Co-Sponsored by: the Sol Shnider Endowed Chair for Anesthesia Education, held by Kristine Breyer, MD

Winning Hearts and Minds: Supporting Health Professions Trainees to Combat Harmful Misinformation

Principal Investigators: Neeti Doshi, MD, MPH; Arthur Chyan, DO working with Meg McNamara; MD, Anna Chang, MD; Calvin Chou, MD PhD

Co-Sponsored by: the Academy Chair in Pediatric Education, held by Laura Rubinos, MD and the Abraham Rudolph Chair in Pediatric Education, held by Mindy Ju, MD and the Sol Shnider Endowed Chair for Anesthesia Education, held by Kristine Breyer, MD

The Academy’s Innovations Funding program, open to all UCSF faculty, provides intramural grants for the development of new curricular programs and promotion of constructive curricular change. The call for the next cycle of Innovations Funding for Education grants will be released in the summer of 2027, with upcoming information sessions to be scheduled.

For more information about Innovations Funding, visit the Innovations Funding for Education Program.