Thalamus.Org Launches to Address Inequities in the Physician Workforce

Thalamus.Org promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion in the medical residency recruitment process through scholarships and grants to applicants who are underrepresented in medicine.

NASHVILLE, Tenn., Sep. 27, 2022 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Thalamus.Org (https://thalamus.org), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, announced its official launch today. Its mission is to make the medical residency selection, placement, and transition process affordable, fair, and accessible to all medical students.

The residency application process in the United States is expensive, time-consuming, and competitive. The average medical school loan debt exceeds $250,000, and applicants incur up to $25,000 in additional debt as they apply for and interview at multiple residency programs across the country.

Thalamus.Org will provide grants to students who are underrepresented in medicine (URiM), including students from communities of color and those of lower socioeconomic status. The goal is to close the disparate financial gap and minimize the additional hurdles such students have in navigating the residency application process.

"We've intentionally taken a broad approach of defining underrepresented in medicine," said Jason Reminick, MD, MBA, MS, Founder and Chair of Thalamus.Org. "Our grants are meant to reward resiliency and celebrate overcoming adversity while pursuing a career in medicine. This includes medical students from non-traditional educational pathways, or those from other disadvantaged backgrounds, including individuals growing up with limited access to medical care in Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSA), or those acting in a parental or guardian role due to the absence of parent(s) or guardian(s)."

Awards, in the amount of $5000, can be used to offset the costs of applying to residency including application costs, travel costs, and other miscellaneous costs (e.g. computers, professional dress, etc.).

"It is critical that students be able to afford these costs because their chances of matching into a residency program are correlated to the number of interviews completed, which corresponds to the length of their "Rank Order List." Students with longer rank lists are statistically more likely to successfully match into a residency program," said Freada Kapor Klein, Ph.D., social policy researcher, philanthropist and Co-Chair of the Kapor Center Foundation, and the first fiscal sponsor funding Thalamus.Org. "This is important work allowing individuals from all backgrounds to continue their training beyond medical school."

"Expanding the pipeline to ensure that the physician workforce meets the needs of its patient population is critical to providing care to the most medically underserved communities," said Katherine Haynes, Senior Program Officer at the California Healthcare Foundation (CHCF), another major sponsor of the organization. "As a health funder in the most racially diverse state in the US, we are thrilled to help build a physician workforce that looks more like California's population."

In addition to providing financial support to students, Thalamus.org will expand and build upon existing research initiatives to promote Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) throughout the transition from medical school to residency, otherwise known as the Undergraduate Medical Education (UME) to Graduate Medical Education (GME) transition.

Thalamus.Org will function as its own independent organization, but have close ties with– and will receive research efforts in kind from – Thalamus (https://thalamusgme.com), a Venture Capital-funded technology company in Silicon Valley. The for-profit organization provides comprehensive interview management via a real-time scheduling system, video interviewing platform, and an AI application screening tool. Thalamus streamlines the interview management process at thousands of residency and fellowship programs at over 290 academic medical centers nationally. Over 90% of all graduating medical students use Thalamus.

Reminick, who is also the CEO of Thalamus, further described the reasoning behind the creation of the non-profit. "The deeper we dove into our research efforts at Thalamus, the clearer it became that financing application and interview costs played a critical role in the recruitment process. There are limited funding opportunities for medical students already graduating with significant debt. Those who are unable to max out credit cards, secure additional educational loans, or borrow money from relatives should not be further limited from achieving their dream of becoming a physician after graduating medical school. That harms not only the students, but also the greater healthcare system and patient outcomes. We felt compelled to provide a solution and with time we started building significant momentum and support."

Thalamus.Org has already started accepting application submissions for grant funding for the 2022-2023 residency application process and will announce its first awards by the end of September. The organization is actively recruiting a diverse group of leaders in medicine to round out its Review Committee and Board of Directors. Thalamus.Org is actively seeking donors to support additional awards. To learn more, please visit Thalamus.Org.

About Thalamus.Org: Thalamus.Org is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization built with love in Nashville, TN. At the intersection of technology and healthcare, we're changing the future of medicine in the heart of Music City! For more information on Thalamus.Org, please visit https://thalamus.org or connect with us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.

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SOURCE Thalamus.Org