A Deeper Dive

Collaboration concentrates
our strength

Even Better Together

Before the Alliance was formed, each of our founding organizations was engaged in meeting the professional needs of its members—the professionals working within the field of academic internal medicine.

Collaboration and communication existed between these five entities, and all were successful in helping to shape policy and advocate for change by supporting the career paths of their members.

The impetus for a merger, says Polly E. Parsons, MD, MACP, FCCP, ATSF, President and CEO of the Alliance, “was to become more efficient, to consolidate our influence and offer resources to members they weren’t able to find elsewhere.”

The power of the consortium that exists now, through the Alliance, is only possible because of the strength of each of our five founding members.

Founded in 1979, AIM is the organization of business administrators in departments of internal medicine at medical schools and affiliated teaching hospitals in the United States and Canada. The association represents chief administrative officers, division administrators, administrative directors and managers, and other senior business administrators in departments of internal medicine.

Founded in 1977, APDIM is the international organization of accredited internal medicine residency programs. The association represents program directors, associate and assistant program directors, core faculty, program administrators and coordinators, fellowship coordinators and other key faculty and staff involved in the internal medicine residency program.

Founded in 1954, APM is the organization of departments of internal medicine represented by chairs and appointed leaders at medical schools and affiliated teaching hospitals in the United States and Canada. The association represents department chairs of internal medicine at medical schools, vice chairs, chairs at affiliated teaching hospitals and other departmental leaders who are full professors of medicine.

Founded in 1994, ASP is the organization of specialty internal medicine divisions at medical schools and community teaching hospitals in the United States and Canada. The association represents fellowship program directors, division chiefs and any physician faculty involved in an accredited internal medicine subspecialty fellowship program or its division.

Founded in 1989, CDIM is the organization of individuals responsible for teaching internal medicine to medical students. The association represents third-year clerkship directors, intensive-care management course directors, subinternship directors, clerkship administrators and coordinators, clinical preceptors and other faculty and staff involved in undergraduate medical education.

FIVE BECOME ONE

The work of merging five distinct, albeit interrelated, associations into a single consortium took time and a good deal of careful planning internally. And the membership of each entity needed time to understand the motivation of the merger and the value of representation by a single entity that could speak about their critical issues with a single, united voice.

The process unfolded along this timeline:

2000

Founding associations begin first concurrent meetings

2002

Staff merges

2004

Branding begins for a combined annual conference: AIM Week

2008

First AIM Week to include all five member organizations

2010

AAIM is incorporated

2011

Phase 1 of merger: includes ASP and AIM

2012

Phase 2 of merger: includes APM, APDIM, CDIM

2013

AAIM becomes the sole entity

“We continue to be grateful for the ways in which the AAIM staff have adjusted and adapted to the merger. Their dedication to our mission and to the success of the consortium has allowed the Alliance to offer even greater support to our members through the execution of a collaborative strategic plan.”

Polly E. Parsons, MD, MACP, FCCP, ATSF, President and CEO of the Alliance

Focused expertise

Today, AAIM is a successful and forward-looking, member-driven organization. That’s not surprising, given the years of experience each founding organization brings to the table and the various points of view that contribute to the Alliance’s vision.

Working together as one, we engage in four important areas of focus:

  • Supporting the highest principles of the medical profession
  • Uniting, preserving and promoting academic internal medicine
  • Ensuring that academic internal medicine is a leader and maintains its excellence in educating the next generation of physicians and providing high-quality care to patients
  • Developing faculty and staff leaders in departments of internal medicine

What’s next

“After the merger, we were rather big and a little lumpy,” says Shobhina G. Chheda, MD, MPH, Chair of the 2024 AAIM Board of Directors and Associate Dean for Medical Education at University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. “Now we’re working on developing further efficiencies as refinement of what we’ve already achieved,” Chheda says. “When we become even more nimble, we’ll have an even greater impact.”

Collaboration at Work

A group examines information on a board.

The Internal Medicine Education Advisory Board (IMEAB) was formed in 2011 as a forum for discussion, collaboration and consensus-building around issues affecting the education of internal medicine physicians.

IMEAB address a variety of issues, though gave considerable time and attention to the development and implementation of internal medicine milestones and the assessment of competence in residency training.

The feedback provided by IMEAB and the collaboration amongst its members proved invaluable at furthering the work of the internal medicine education community around this and other important issues. Reflecting upon this initial work, the IMEAB members strongly believed that the relationships between the stakeholder organizations were strengthened. The IMEAB then recognized the need to examine and further define the scope and purpose of its work to continue providing meaningful guidance to the internal medicine education community.

IMEAB’s current
activities include:

  • Focus on items and issues related to the professional education of internal medicine physicians
  • Serve as a forum for discussion about specific issues related to internal medicine education with the goal of providing guidance, and, when possible, consensus recommendations to the internal medicine education community regarding that issue
  • Serve as a “think tank” to identify and consider emerging issues related to internal medicine education and appropriately frame that discussion to facilitate advocacy, research, or communication within the internal medicine community
  • Communicate directly with leadership from key stakeholder organizations, with the goal of strengthening this emerging learning community
  • Facilitate collaboration and communication among IMEAB member organizations
  • Establish a culture of mutual accountability necessary to further the collective work of the internal medicine education community as a whole

IMEAB’s member
organizations are:

  • Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine
  • Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education
  • American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine
  • American Board of Internal Medicine
  • American College of Osteopathic Internists
  • American College of Physicians
  • American Medical Association
  • Association of American Medical Colleges
  • Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates, now Intealth
  • National Board of Medical Examiners
  • National Board of Osteopathic Medical Examiners
  • Society of General Internal Medicine
  • Society of Hospital Medicine