Call for Participation
Letter of Intent Due: September 8th, 2025 by 5 PM PT
Grant Award: $2,000 per institution
Sketchy invites accredited U.S. allopathic and osteopathic medical schools to apply for the inaugural Clinical Reasoning Catalyst Grant: A DDx Collaboration—Co-Creating a clinical reasoning learning and assessment tool to shape the future of medical education.
DDx by Sketchy is an AI-enabled clinical reasoning platform in which learners engage with virtual patients and attending physicians, make diagnostic decisions, and receive real-time feedback on their performance. The platform is designed to enhance clinical decision-making, promote diagnostic accuracy, and support cognitive integration.
Through this partnership, five institutions will collaborate with Sketchy and a team of clinical reasoning experts to co-design and implement a tool for teaching and assessing clinical reasoning, advancing the field while establishing a scholarly foundation for national and international impact.
Call for Applications Timeline
- Grant Award: $2,000 per Institution
- Application Letter of Intent posted: Jul. 23, 2025
- Letter of Intent and Letter of Support due: Sept. 8, 2025 by 5 PM PDT
- Review of Letters of Intent by Committee and Invitation to Complete Secondary Applications sent to selected applicant schools: Sept. 26, 2025
- Secondary Application due: Oct. 10, 2025 by 5 PM PDT
- Review of Secondary Applications and Awarding of Pilot School Status: Oct. 24, 2025
Pilot Program Goals
- Create and foster intra-institutional collaborative teams of trainees, staff, and faculty while also engaging in networking with peer pilot schools and teams
- Collaboratively design, develop, and refine DDx clinical reasoning cases that align with your institution’s curriculum and educational goals—while engaging in peer exchange and shared learning with other selected pilot schools.
- Assess and evaluate the pedagogical impact of cases through structured implementation, learner feedback, and learner performance data.
- Co-author scholarly work on case development, learner and faculty experiences, and assessment and evaluation data.
Qualifications
To be eligible, teams must:
- Be faculty members at a U.S.-accredited allopathic or osteopathic medical school.
- Be at an institution that demonstrates an institutional interest in and commitment to curriculum and assessment innovation in clinical/diagnostic reasoning.
- Include two institutional co-leads and a broader Pilot School team inclusive of at least two clinical educators, one basic science educator, one individual with curriculum design expertise, one staff member, one resident or fellow, and at least 2 senior medical students (note: to assist in design, feedback, or testing, medical students should be M3 or M4s with a strong academic performance record, excellent collaborative and interpersonal skills, and an interest in medical education as a career).
- Commit to meeting approximately every other week during the year long program (November 2025 - October 2026) as follows:
- Meeting 1: A minimum of monthly intra-institutional Pilot School team meetings coordinated by the two team co-leads.
- Meeting 2: A minimum of monthly inter-institutional meetings of co-leads from all selected Pilot Schools, select members of the Sketchy Team Leadership, and Special Invited Guest Experts in Clinical Reasoning.
- Submit required deliverables in a timely and collaborative manner.
- Provide a letter of support from a senior institutional leader (Dean, Vice Dean, Senior Associate Dean, or equivalent).
Pilot Institution Benefits
Each of the five selected institutions will receive:
- A $2,000 unrestricted grant to support pilot activities and/or offset costs related to publication and conference dissemination.
- Beta access to DDx by Sketchy, with the ability to incorporate DDx clinical reasoning cases into your medical student curriculum. Institutions maintain full flexibility regarding how often and in what context the cases are used.
- The opportunity to co-create DDx clinical reasoning cases in collaboration with Sketchy’s design and engineering teams along with national experts in clinical reasoning.
- A chance to shape system functionality through direct input and testing, helping to expand what DDx can do to support dynamic, case-based learning and support you in meeting your assessment/evaluation needs.
- Recognition as a Founding DDx Pilot Institution in Sketchy communications, press releases, and external presentations.
- Opportunities to share your work and insights nationally alongside other selected institutions—through collaborative presentations, publications, and AAMC/GEA submission pathways.
- Scholarly co-authorship opportunities, including optional contributions to collective academic manuscripts or white papers on case development and reasoning education.
Letter of Intent (LOI) Submission Requirements
Please download the submission requirements template here
Basic Information
- Institution Name
- Lead Contact Person (Full Name)
- Email Address
- Phone Number
Co-Lead Team
- Names, terminal degrees, email addresses, and curricular roles of the two co-leads
- CVs for both co-leads
- Brief summary (max 300 words) of co-leads’ experience in curriculum and/or assessment design and leadership
Narrative Questions
- Why are you and your team interested in submitting this LOI? What do you hope to gain from this partnership? (Max 300 words)
- What makes your institution well suited to participate in this initiative? (Max 250 words)
- Describe your plan to form a collaborative team of learners, staff, and educators. How will you recruit student contributors? (Max 250 words)
- How might you use the $2,000 grant to support project development or scholarly dissemination? (Max 150 words)
- What challenges or barriers do you anticipate, and how will you address them? (Max 200 words)
Letter of Support
- Signed letter from a Dean, Vice Dean, or Senior Associate Dean for Medical Education indicating institutional support of the co-leaders participation in this program and agreement to incorporate DDx for pilot purposes into the school’s curriculum in the manner best determined by the Pilot School.
Contact:
Technical Questions: trisha.babcock@sketchy.com 914-216-2799
Have more questions? Contact VIPsupport@sketchy.com
