The American Medical Student Association (AMSA), founded in 1950 and based in
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
, is an independent association of
physician
A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...
s-in-training in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. AMSA is a student-governed national organization.They have a membership of 68,000
medical student
A medical school is a tertiary educational institution, or part of such an institution, that teaches medicine, and awards a professional degree for physicians. Such medical degrees include the Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS, MB ...
s, premedical students, interns,
medical residents
Residency or postgraduate training is specifically a stage of graduate medical education. It refers to a qualified physician (one who holds the degree of MD, DO, MBBS, MBChB), veterinarian ( DVM or VMD) , dentist ( DDS or DMD) or podiatrist ( ...
, and practicing
physician
A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...
s from across the country.
Strategic priorities
In November 2007, AMSA leaders decided upon four strategic priorities:
* ''
Quality, Affordable Health Care for All'' through advocacy for
healthcare reform
Health care reform is for the most part governmental policy that affects health care delivery in a given place. Health care reform typically attempts to:
* Broaden the population that receives health care coverage through either public sector insur ...
, and a
single-payer universal healthcare system
* ''
Global Health
Global health is the health of the populations in the worldwide context; it has been defined as "the area of study, research and practice that places a priority on improving health and achieving equity in health for all people worldwide". Problem ...
Equity'' through education about our responsibility for rational and proportional assistance for all people
* ''Enriching Medicine Through
Diversity
Diversity, diversify, or diverse may refer to:
Business
*Diversity (business), the inclusion of people of different identities (ethnicity, gender, age) in the workforce
*Diversity marketing, marketing communication targeting diverse customers
* ...
'' by improving recruitment and retention into the medicine of under-represented minorities, while increasing the diversity of its leadership
* ''Professional Integrity, Development and Student Well-Being'' that creates a humane and cooperative learning environment, one that will develop physicians worthy of the public trust, through work hour reform, revitalization of professionalism in the medical field, and through AMSA's
PharmFree
The American Medical Student Association (AMSA), founded in 1950 and based in Washington, D.C., is an independent association of physicians-in-training in the United States. AMSA is a student-governed national organization.They have a membership ...
campaign.
History
The American Medical Student Association (AMSA) was founded in 1950, as the Student American Medical Association (SAMA), under the auspices of the
American Medical Association
The American Medical Association (AMA) is a professional association and lobbying group of physicians and medical students. Founded in 1847, it is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Membership was approximately 240,000 in 2016.
The AMA's state ...
(AMA). The main purpose of the organization was to provide medical students a chance to participate in organized medicine.
In 1967, AMSA established its independence from the AMA, became student-governed, and began to raise its own voice on a variety of socio-medical issues, including
civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life of ...
,
abortion rights
Abortion-rights movements, also referred to as pro-choice movements, advocate for the right to have legal access to induced abortion services including elective abortion. They seek to represent and support women who wish to terminate their pre ...
,
universal health care
Universal health care (also called universal health coverage, universal coverage, or universal care) is a health care system in which all residents of a particular country or region are assured access to health care. It is generally organized ar ...
and
Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
.
In 2001 AMSA joined the
Committee of Interns & Residents and
Public Citizen
Public Citizen is a non-profit, progressive consumer rights advocacy group and think tank based in Washington, D.C., United States, with a branch in Austin, Texas.
Lobbying efforts
Public Citizen advocates before all three branches of the Unit ...
in filing a petition with the
Occupational Safety and Health Administration
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration'' (OSHA ) is a large regulatory agency of the United States Department of Labor that originally had federal visitorial powers to inspect and examine workplaces. Congress established the agenc ...
asking for federal oversight of resident work hours as a matter of workplace safety. AMSA authored the
Patient and Physician Safety and Protection Act of 2005
A patient is any recipient of health care services that are performed by healthcare professionals. The patient is most often ill or injured and in need of treatment by a physician, nurse, optometrist, dentist, veterinarian, or other health care ...
, introduced by Senator
Jon Corzine
Jon Stevens Corzine ( ; born January 1, 1947) is an American financial executive and retired politician who served as a United States Senator from New Jersey from 2001 to 2006 and the 54th governor of New Jersey from 2006 to 2010. Corzine ran fo ...
(S. 1297) and Representative
John Conyers
John James Conyers Jr. (May 16, 1929October 27, 2019) was an American politician of the Democratic Party who served as a U.S. representative from Michigan from 1965 to 2017. The districts he represented always included part of western Detroit. ...
(H.R.1228). AMSA and the
Committee of Interns & Residents also jointly maintain a website advocating for work hours reform calle
Hours Watchthat presents the latest scientific research on the topic.
In addition to sponsoring events highlighting prospects for universal health care, medical technology, and
HIV
The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of ''Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immune ...
/
AIDS
Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...
, AMSA also has organized the
PharmFree Campaign to educate and train its members to interact professionally and ethically with the
pharmaceutical industry
The pharmaceutical industry discovers, develops, produces, and markets drugs or pharmaceutical drugs for use as medications to be administered to patients (or self-administered), with the aim to cure them, vaccinate them, or alleviate symptoms. ...
.
Action committees
![USCapitolDome](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/USCapitolDome.jpg)
AMSA has eight Action Committees: Community & Public Health Action Committee, Environmental Health Action Committee, Gender & Sexuality Action Committee, Global Health Action Committee, Health Policy Team, Medical Education Team, Race, Ethnicity & Culture in Health Action Committee (REACH), and Wellness & Student Life Action Committee.
IFMSA partnership
In 2008, IFMSA-USA merged with AMSA.
IFMSA-USA used to be the US representative to the
International Federation of Medical Students' Associations
The International Federation of Medical Students' Associations (IFMSA) is a non-governmental organization representing associations of medical students. It was founded in May 1951 and currently maintains 139 member organizations from 130 countr ...
(IFMSA). Since the merger, AMSA now is able to offer international exchanges for research and clinical electives to nearly 70 countries through SCORE and SCOPE, respectively. The exchanges are available to medical student members, research exchanges are available to select pre-med members. AMSA also now sends a delegation of students to the semi-annual
IFMSA
The International Federation of Medical Students' Associations (IFMSA) is a non-governmental organization representing associations of medical students. It was founded in May 1951 and currently maintains 139 member organizations from 130 countr ...
General Assemblies (GA) of IFMSA.
Programs
PharmFree
Th
PharmFreeproject, established by the AMSA in 2002, was created from the belief that the medical profession needs more detachment from pharmaceutical firms.
Spending on marketing to physicians, which includes gifts to medical students, rose from $12.1 billion in 1999 to $22 billion in 2003. Based on the premise that taking gifts from
pharmaceutical companies
The pharmaceutical industry discovers, develops, produces, and markets drugs or pharmaceutical drugs for use as medications to be administered to patients (or self-administered), with the aim to cure them, vaccinate them, or alleviate symptoms. ...
creates a
conflict of interest
A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple interests, financial or otherwise, and serving one interest could involve working against another. Typically, this relates to situations i ...
for doctors, AMSA now urges both students and practicing physicians to 'just say no' to all personal gifts from Pharmaceutical companies.
The PharmFree campaign has included a march on Pfizer offices in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, where members assembled at the firm's front doors and dumped thousands of pens marked with the company's logo on the doorstep. Additionally, under the leadership of then-President
Leana Wen
Leana Sheryle Wen (; born Wen Linyan; January 27, 1983) is an American physician, an op-ed columnist with ''The Washington Post'' and a CNN medical analyst. She is a practicing physician, a former Health Commissioner for the City of Baltimore, ...
, AMSA started the Counter Detailing Campaign in 2005 to encourage physicians-in-training to educate practicing physicians about alternative sources of information regarding pharmaceuticals. As "detailing" is the concept of drug representatives selling biased information to physicians, AMSA came up with the concept of "counter detailing" as an opposing concept, for students to bring physicians evidence-based sources of information. In May 2007, AMSA released the PharmFree Scorecard, the first to evaluate medical schools according to their pharmaceutical interaction policies. Of all the medical schools in the United States, five received a grade of “A,” which translates into a comprehensive school policy that restricts pharmaceutical representatives to both the medical school campus and its academic medical centers. Forty schools received an “F” for their lack of policies or encouraging physicians-in-training to obtain information from drug representatives.
Allies and supporters of this campaign include
No Free Lunch
"There ain't no such thing as a free lunch" (alternatively, "There is no such thing as a free lunch" or other variants) is a popular adage communicating the idea that it is impossible to get something for nothing. The acronyms TANSTAAFL, TINSTA ...
,
AARP
AARP (formerly called the American Association of Retired Persons) is an interest group in the United States focusing on issues affecting those over the age of fifty. The organization said it had more than 38 million members in 2018. The magazin ...
,
Consumers Union
A consumer is a person or a group who intends to order, or uses purchased goods, products, or services primarily for personal, social, family, household and similar needs, who is not directly related to entrepreneurial or business activities. T ...
, the
Medical Letter
''The Medical Letter on Drugs and Therapeutics'' (commonly referred to as ''The Medical Letter'') is a peer-reviewed biweekly medical journal providing evaluations of pharmaceutical drugs. It is published in English, French, and Italian. The journ ...
, and the
National Physicians Alliance
The National Physicians Alliance (NPA) was a 501(c)(3) national, multi-specialty medical organization founded in 2005. The organization's mission statement was: "The National Physicians Alliance creates research and education programs that promote ...
.
AMSA Foundation
The Foundation was established by AMSA in 1964 as a means to address issues in medical education and to provide low cost, small emergency loans to medical students in need. In 1974, it became a programming arm of AMSA.
Leadership
AMSA's members elect a National President to serve a one-year term, based in AMSA's Reston offices. The President takes a year's leave from medical school in order to serve AMSA and its mission. AMSA also has staff that work in its Sterling offices, including an executive director. In 2006, AMSA's long-time executive director, Paul R. Wright, retired.
Logo
To celebrate AMSA's 60th anniversary, a new
logo
A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name it represents as in a wordma ...
was designed, containing a
Rod of Asclepius
In Greek mythology, the Rod of Asclepius (⚕; grc, Ράβδος του Ασκληπιού, , sometimes also spelled Asklepios), also known as the Staff of Aesculapius and as the asklepian, is a serpent-entwined rod wielded by the Greek god A ...
incorporated into a shield. The letters AMSA rest upon the fully spelled out name of the organization, using the font "Today."
The crest contains four colors; from top right clockwise, they are and represent:
*Blue - (although it is not explicitly explained why the blue is in the shield, the color blue in general represents AMSA's history and tradition, since its logo has always been blue)
*Purple - Purple illustrates the advocacy efforts on behalf of
LGBT
' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity.
The LGBT term is a ...
medical students and those discriminated against based on gender and sexuality
*Red - Red was incorporated into the new logo to reflect the organization's dedication to fighting the global AIDS pandemic
*Green - Green exemplifies AMSA's commitment to a better environment and environmental health and the organization's commitment to reducing its
carbon footprint
A carbon footprint is the total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused by an individual, event, organization, service, place or product, expressed as carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e). Greenhouse gases, including the carbon-containing gases carbo ...
There is also a
blazon
In heraldry and heraldic vexillology, a blazon is a formal description of a coat of arms, flag or similar emblem, from which the reader can reconstruct the appropriate image. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The vis ...
as to the usage of the logo, including size, dimensions and colors. These can be found at AMSA's website.
See also
*
Caduceus as a symbol of medicine
The caduceus (☤; ; la, cādūceus, from grc-gre, κηρύκειον "herald's wand, or staff") is the staff carried by Hermes in Greek mythology and consequently by Hermes Trismegistus in Greco-Egyptian mythology. The same staff was also ...
*
National Physicians Alliance
The National Physicians Alliance (NPA) was a 501(c)(3) national, multi-specialty medical organization founded in 2005. The organization's mission statement was: "The National Physicians Alliance creates research and education programs that promote ...
References
External links
Official website {{Authority control
Medical associations based in the United States
Medical and health student organizations
Student organizations established in 1950
Student organizations in the United States
Medical and health organizations based in Virginia