ACP leadership day2 min read

Today’s series of inane images:

Last week I had the opportunity to attend the American College of Physicians [ACP] Leadership Day on Capitol Hill.
Since it was my first visit to Washington D.C., I made sure to visit the National Mall. We started with the U.S. Capitol Building since it was right down the street from our hotel.
Sadly the Washington Monument is closed to visitors due to a past earthquake. 

The Lincoln Memorial was well worth the long trek across the National Mall.

A couple weeks ago I had the opportunity to attend the American College of Physicians [ACP] Leadership Day on Capitol Hill with two of my classmates, a Wayne State medical student, a Beaumont resident physician and three other ACP fellows practicing in Michigan [including one of our lecturers and the governor of the ACP Michigan Chapter, Dr. Carl Lauter]. Because I am not too well-versed in the area of legislation, I thought that this would be an optimal opportunity to catch myself up.

Basically we spent an entire day learning about the ACP Key Priorities which were:

  1. Eliminate Medicare’s Sustainable Growth Rate [SGR] and Transition to Better Payment SYstems
  2. Ensure Full Funding for Essential Health Programs [e.g. National Health Service Corps, National Institutes of Health (NIH), etc]
  3. Enact Meaningful Medical Liability Reforms; Authorize and Fund a National Pilot of No-Fault Health Courts
  4. Fully Fund Graduate Medical Education; Re-align the Program with the National’s Workforce Needs
You can read more about these topics and ACP’s stance here [I actually thought that this PDF was a really quick and easy read that helped me understand what the current structure is and where the ACP wants to take it]. After getting to know these issues, the following day we went to speak to Representative McCotter and Levin as well as Senator Levin to advocate for ACP’s policy statements. Although we only briefly saw Congressman Levin and spoke to the staffers for McCotter and Senator Levin, it was still a great way to practice advocacy.

Anyway, I’m not an extremely politically-oriented individual, but I thought that the experience was a wonderful way to learn about current health policy [and a perfect excuse to explore the D.C. area with my wonderful classmates!].

In other news, I’m starting my Cardiology Internship tomorrow! Should be a fun time [plus, I’ve missed seeing my classmates – it seems so weird going for such a long time without seeing them!].

2 thoughts on “ACP leadership day2 min read

  • June 18, 2012 at 8:27 pm
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    Did OU provide financial support for you to go?

  • June 19, 2012 at 10:05 am
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    The ACP Michigan Chapter funded our participation in the event – however, we were offerred the opportunity through an OUWB faculty member.

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