This year, the annual AMA-MSMS House of Delegates meeting was held in Grand Rapids, Michigan on April 26-28, 2013. The event was hosted at the Amway Grand Plaza and brought together physicians, residents, and student representatives to discuss resolutions proposed to the Michigan State Medical Society. WSU SOM sent 18 students to the conference and held 11 delegate votes.
Friday’s events focused on the achievements of the current MSMS officers, with awards being presented to those outstanding individuals. The remainder of the evening was dedicated to future MSMS officers, with candidates for open leadership positions speaking to their appointment. Respect for the MSMS-Medical Student Section was obvious throughout the night, with multiple candidates addressing specific issues facing medical students. Many also made appearances at MSS caucuses to address our questions and concerns, as well as encourage our participation and input during resolution discussions.
On Saturday, reference committees heard testimony to each resolution, after which, WSU SOM students were able to discuss their own stance on the issues. We saw the impact of our delegate votes, and those of our fellow MSMS-MSS members, on Sunday. A resolution proposed by Wayne State’s own Rachel Beaupre and Christine Kang was passed with tremendous support from the physicians, as well as medical students, in attendance. It is a great achievement and we proudly congratulate them! The actions of the remaining resolutions were mostly in line with WSU SOM’s stance.
 Also at this meeting, MSMS-MSS governing leaders were elected within the Medical Student Section. Wayne State was well accounted for, with candidates running for three leadership positions: Christine Kang (Vice Chair), Cory Lake (Advocacy Liaison), and Sarah Gorgis (Secretary). Each was elected to their desired position and will represent the Michigan Medical Student Section over the coming year.
Beyond our votes, the meeting also provided an ideal platform for networking among physicians and students. A large number of physicians represented Wayne County, including a few with Wayne State involvement. For the incoming Wayne State AMA executive board, this was an excellent experience. It provided insight to the substantial impact that medical students can have on policymaking. We look forward to using our knowledge from this MSMS meeting at the national AMA meeting in June.
Sincerely,
Ashley Arnoldi
AMA Executive Board - Secretary
 On February 1-2nd of 2013, a total of 24 members of the Wayne State University School of Medicine’s chapter of the American Medical
Association Medical Student Section attended the Annual Region 5 AMA-MSS meeting in Grand Rapids. The event was hosted by Michigan State University College of Human Medicine (MSU-CHM) at the recently built Secchia Center, offering over 200
medical students from the five states represented by Region 5 (Michigan,
Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia) insight into different modalities of patient care; information concerning ongoing and future changes in policy affecting physicians; and resources on how to advocate for changes in medical education, physician rights and patient outcomes.
The events started Friday evening with a Dean’s Reception at the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel and featured speakers Dr. Marsha Rappley, MSU-CHM Dean and newly appointed Chair-Elect of AAMC Council of Deans, and Jeff Rich of Gundersen Lutheran. Dean Rappley took a nontraditional approach and fielded questions from the audience to guide her presentation. It was a great look into the future of medicine through the eyes of medical administrators. Mr. Rich followed and spoke on potential sustainability efforts to be utilized in the hospitals which would allow for reallocation of funds back to the patients instead of energy expenditures.
The following day, the keynote speaker, Dr. Patch Adams, took the podium to give a highly interactive presentation entitled, "Medicine for Fun, not Fund." At one point, he had the entire lecture hall paired off as complete strangers grasping each other’s face and saying "I love you." Dr. Patch Adams' talk was a call for activism to treat patients as people, and not a disease. Although some may view his approach to transforming medicine and healthcare as revolutionary, he has many tenets that could easily be incorporated into organized medicine as it is practiced today.
The rest of Saturday was filled with presentations concerning the current hot topics that we face as medical students and issues that affect practicing physicians today: managing mental health as medical students as we learn in an antiquated curriculum while pigeonholing ourselves into higher-paying specialties (instead of pursuing our preferred career choice) so that we can pay off medical-school debts; dealing with the lack of growth in GME funding and the projections of physician shortages in the next 10-15 years; implementing the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on the local, state and national levels; and understanding the implications of the fiscal cliff and how the attempt to balance the US budget is partly aimed at cutting Medicare payments.
However, Saturday was not filled with just the "doom and gloom" of our current medical education and healthcare system. The presentations were followed up with information on how to advocate for change and develop resolutions that can guide AMA policy to accelerate change in medical education and healthcare.
There were also "mini medical school" sessions of covering various fields where students were able to learn things like how to perform a FAST (Focused Assessment with Sonography for Trauma) examination on volunteers, discuss physician opportunities to pursue involvement outside of clinical practice and academia, and learn techniques for fundoscopic exams. The weekend was an AMAzing success in mobilizing, educating and empowering the Region 5 medical student tocontinue to improve upon this awesome profession, a profession where we can love someone back to health.
Aloha! The 2012 AMA Interim Meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii was a great success! Wayne State’s AMA was represented by 6 of their M2/M3/M4 students this past weekend (November 8th-10th) at the Honolulu Convention Center where the conference was held.
While there, your AMA national delegates (Sarah Gorgis and Brian Hollett) discussed, debated, deliberated, and voted on over 30 resolutions submitted by medical students from around the nation aimed to further enhance AMA policy. Our own WSU AMA president, Christine Kang MS2, saw the resolution that she co-authored, pass with resounding agreement, and it will further prevent discrimination by medical students against patients.
Your WSU representatives also elected new Regional and Regional Alternate Delegates for our region (including our very own Mike Johnson MS3 at MSUCHM to the position of Regional Delegate). Ekta Shah MS2, participated in the poster presentation at the meeting and received great appreciation for her efforts. While there your AMA delegates also heard from AMA sections from around the country on how to improve recruitment and member involvement, volunteered in a beach clean-up service project, and strengthened our ties with the other schools from around the nation.
We now return home from the whirlwind of meetings and travel poised and equipped to further enhance our WSU AMA section. The resolution results will be posted once the national AMA publishes the results so please keep checking back to see what new AMA MSS policies were adopted or not.
AMA National Representative - Brian Hollett
 It was great to see so many first year students at the AMA table during the Student Org Fair today. Hope you had a chance to talk to the board members and had your questions answered. If you missed it, you can come to our first meeting on Friday, August 17th and find out about AMA . You will be able to purchase AMA membership (incentives still available), Oktoberfest tickets, and T-shirts at the meeting.
The membership fee for AMA, MSMS, and WCMS is $88 altogether and it covers all four years of medical school. It provides you with a lot of opportunities to build networks with physicians and medical students from other medical schools all over the country. You will be invited to come to the national and regional meetings to discuss on-going issues in medical field, and you will hear about more ways to get involved with AMA throughout the year.
Starting this week, you will receive emails about our meetings, co-curricular opportunities, and of course Oktoberfest which is the biggest annual event our AMA chapter holds, and we encourage everyone to join us. Once again, welcome new members and we will see you at our first meeting on August 17th!
AMA WSU board
 The National AMA-MSS meeting held in Chicago on June 14-16 this year resulted in positive outcomes for both Wayne State School of Medicine, as well as for the AMA Medical Student Section. WSU SOM sent 13 students to the conference, and held two delegate votes. This particular meeting proved to be a catalyst for networking, with much of the program designed around a wide variety of networking opportunities. The unifying aspect of AMA was also high integrated, with residents and doctors making appearances at the Medical Student Section through presentations and panels aimed at answering questions and concerns. But most importantly, this meeting reaffirmed the significance of medical student involvement in policymaking, as well as taking a stance on issues that are occurring today. Attending the Michigan State Medical Society meeting held earlier on in the year prepared our delegates and alternate delegates in effectively reviewing the referrals of the Reference Committee, and in quickly making decisions about whether we would support or oppose the referral. Out of the 35 resolutions that were presented by students, 21 passed and 6 were reaffirmed, with most of the decisions being parallel to WSU SOM’s stance. After participating in the Caucus, it is easy to say that our Medical Student Section is well equipt to bring forth issues that are important to us. Attending the annual provided a sense of unity, but also revealed the passion that students display in issues relating to quality education, quality health delivery, and good policy; reaffirming the significance of active student involvement. *The positions of the reference committee, as well as the positions of our school, will be posted on our website: www.waynestateama.com**The AMA-MSS is dedicated to representing medical students, improving medical education, developing leadership, and promoting activism for the health of America. Sincerely, Your National Rep, Sarah Gorgis And your AMA Executive Board
Recently, we elected a new group of victims... err leaders. All of us on the 2011-2012 E-Board are absolutely thrilled with the outstanding candidates we were able to choose from and we have no doubt that our WSU Chapter will continue getting better every year.
President - Christine Kang
Vice President - Chris Sy
Treasurer - Tori Lafleur
Secertary - Jean Park
Rep. to the American Medical Association - Brian Hollett
Rep. to the American Medical Association - Sarah Gorgis
Rep. to the Michigan State Medical Society - Jay Llaniguez
Rep. to the Michigan State Medical Society - Logan Kinch
Rep. to the Wayne County Medical Society - Corey Lake
Rep. to the Wayne County Medical Society - Tiffany Prout
Congrats!!!
Cheers,
Brandon
Medicine sure is moving fast. At the National Conference we learned volumes about the PPACA and its projected impact on the landscape of medicine. Of course, the education didn't stop there. Seminars were held for nearly every topic under the sun.
One of my personal favorites was an insightful look into the world of peer-reviewed research. Some of the top guys at JAMA held a session aimed at first-time researchers vying for publication. Check out our notes from the session in the right column of this page.
As always, stop one of us in the hall or attend a meeting if you'd like to learn more.
Cheers,
Brandon
We were recently informed by the AMA Membership team that our Wayne State chapter is one of the top 10 chapters for largest recruitment increase in 2011! We will be recognized during the MSSOP Recruitment Training Session at the Interim Meeting in New Orleans on November 11th.
Great job, team!
Over 200 people came to Oktoberfest, including Dr. Jablonowski and Joel Hetzner of the Wayne County Medical society! The Tigers game against the Twins was a close one, although we did lose by 1. Photos are attached - courtesy of Alica Eby (thanks!)
We have sold out on AMA Oktoberfest Tshirts (130 total), and as of now have sold 162 Tailgate/tigers game tickets! We're gonna cap tickets at 200, so hurry up and buy before Sunday night.
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