Tools
SOAR collaborates with a diverse range of tools and platforms to support family medicine residency programs in achieving excellence. These partnerships provide residency programs with valuable resources to enhance training, measure outcomes, and streamline operations. Some of the key tools SOAR is partnered with include:
GME Funding For Teaching Hospitals
Teaching hospitals play a crucial role in training the next generation of physicians through Graduate Medical Education (GME) programs. These institutions provide hands-on, supervised clinical training for resident physicians while simultaneously delivering patient care and conducting medical research. Due to the additional costs associated with training residents, the Medicare program offers financial support to teaching hospitals to help offset these expenses, ensuring the continued development of highly skilled medical professionals.
Healthlandscape GME Outcomes Mapping
What are GME Outcomes? The GME Outcomes Mapping Tool allows you to explore ACGME Sponsoring Institutions and see data regarding the number of residency graduates, the number of specialty training programs, the percent of graduates who go into Primary Care, General Surgery, Psychiatry, OB/GYN, and other specialties. For Primary Care graduates we see additional data on whether they remain in primary care as well as whether they are practicing in rural areas.
HealthLandscape Workforce Explorer & Community Needs Maps
HealthLandscape provides innovative, web-based tools to help organizations analyze and visualize complex data for informed decision-making. Their suite of applications enables users to identify areas of need, compare site performance, and track population health trends.
Program Self Study
The AAFP’s Online Residency Assessment Tool is a free resource designed to help family medicine residency programs enhance their quality and effectiveness. Built on the RPS Criteria for Excellence, this tool enables programs to assess their performance against best practices, identify areas for improvement, and showcase their commitment to top-tier training.
AAFP Excellence in Graduate Medical Education Award
Celebrate your dedication to family medicine by applying for the AAFP Award for Excellence in Graduate Medical Education. This prestigious honor recognizes outstanding second-year residents for their exemplary patient care, leadership, and community involvement.
Family Medicine Residency Curriculum Resource
The Family Medicine Residency Curriculum Resource is a transformative tool designed to enhance resident education with a structured, evidence-based approach. Developed by the broader community of family medicine educators, it provides residency programs with a comprehensive library of peer-reviewed teaching materials ready for immediate use.
National Graduate Reports
ABFM has partnered with the Association of Family Medicine Residency Directors (AFMRD) to help residency programs meet their Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) program requirement to survey their graduates. These data enable educators to better understand key features of their graduates’ clinical practice, practice environment, and satisfaction with their training.
Residency Program Self Study Promising Designs
The SOAR project, launched by AFMRD and ABFM, helps family medicine residency programs measure and improve graduate outcomes. By leveraging data and shared best practices, SOAR supports program directors in assessing alumni performance and adapting to evolving ACGME requirements.
Publication
Actively featured in various publications that highlight its impact on family medicine residency programs. As a collaborative Community of Practice, SOAR connects residency programs across the nation, empowering them to share successful strategies and innovative approaches to training. These publications emphasize the importance of measuring post-graduation success and fostering a shared knowledge base to improve family medicine education.