National Initiative on Gender, Culture and Leadership in Medicine: C-Change

The National Initiative on Gender, Culture and Leadership in Medicine, known as C-Change (for culture change), was founded in 2006 and is housed at Brandeis University. Dedicated to improving the culture of academic medicine through research and action, C-Change aims to promote an inclusive, affirming, relational working environment for all faculty and trainees, and to increase diversity of leadership in academic medicine.

C-Change has, over the years, generated substantial qualitative and quantitative research data on the culture of academic medicine that are used by many medical schools and academic health centers to facilitate many effective innovation and culture change initiatives.

Surveys, Practices and Services

C-Change offers services that assess the:

• Organizational culture for faculty using the validated C-Change Faculty Survey. Provides direct comparison with extensive national normative data for the culture of academic health centers.

• Learning environment and professionalism for medical students using the validated C-Change Medical Student Survey.

• Clinical learning environment and professionalism for residents using the validated C-Change Resident Survey.

• Culture regarding diversity, equity and inclusion.

• Research project design and development related to institutional culture and/or the advancement of groups underrepresented in the health sciences.

• C-Change also develops and implements practices to support culture change practices focusing on collaboration, inclusion, diversity, and mentoring in the academic health sciences.