Membership Services

Why Join the AMA Medical Student Section?
As the medical profession's authority in professional standards, ethics, and health care policy, the strength of the AMA comes from its hundreds of thousands of physician and medical student members. Your participation is critical to the collective voice of our membership.

Join the AMA or renew your membership today!

As an advocate for medical students, the AMA:

• Advocates on behalf of medical students on such issues as student debt, health care access, clinical skills assessment exam, resident work conditions, and funding Graduate Medical Education.
• Ensures that medical students are represented in the AMA through their own democratic, policy-making body: the AMA-Medical Student Section (MSS) Assembly.
• Supports your AMA-MSS sections at each medical school through resources such as the MSS Outreach Program, which gives money back to your school's section, and the Idea Book.
• Provides scholarships and financial assistance to medical schools and aspiring physicians through the AMA Foundation.
• Supports local activism and community service by offering Section Involvement Grants - cash grants for your local projects such as healthy lifestyles, tobacco, organ donation, SCHIP, AIDS education programs, minority student mentoring, and many more.
• Provides representation in the House of Delegates and direct involvement via voting participation at all levels of the AMA, including its Board of Trustees.
• Develops future physician leaders by offering a wide range of leadership opportunities and promoting medical student involvement at the local, state, and national levels.
• Provides students the opportunity to experience political and legislative health care issues in Washington, DC through the Government Relations Internship Program and the Government Relations Advocacy Fellowship.
• Supports networking for medical students through annual sponsorship of AMA-MSS Regional Meetings, MSS Advocacy Day, and the national Annual and Interim Meetings of the MSS.

The AMA directly contributes to your medical education:

• Donates more than $1.5 million dollars annually in direct support of medical education through the AMA Foundation.
• Serves an oversight role in the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) - the body responsible for administering your Board exams and licensing. AMA-MSS member students are appointed to the NBME Board annually, which gives them a voice in the clinical skills assessment exam issue, among others.
• Serves an oversight role in the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) - the body that coordinates your match into a residency training program. An AMA-MSS member student is appointed to the NRMP Board for a one-year term.
• Serves as the premier data source for residency training programs and maintains the Fellowship and Residency Electronic Interactive Database Access (FREIDA) Online.
• Publishes JAMA, American Medical News, 10 specialty journals, diagnostic and treatment guidelines, and numerous professional books.

The AMA sets the standards for the medical profession:

• Serves as a parent sponsor of the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) --the accrediting body for your medical schools. An AMA-MSS member student serves as a member of LCME board.
• Serves as one of the parent sponsors of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medial Education (ACGME) - the accrediting body for your residency programs.
• Guides the ongoing development of the medical profession's Code of Ethics through the Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs (CEJA). An AMA-MSS member student serves as a voting member of CEJA.
• Serves as one of the parent sponsors of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) and is committed to the education of physicians throughout their careers.
• Established the AMA Institute for Ethics to conduct research on ethics-related issues, establish practical outreach initiatives and identify guidelines for ethical conduct in a variety of professional areas, including the Educating Physicians on End of Life Care (EPEC) project.

The AMA is committed to improving public health:

• Collaborating with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to produce a series of publications entitled, Roadmaps for Clinical Practice - Case Studies in Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.
• Developed the "Live Then Give" campaign to increase awareness about the importance of organ donation.
• Organized the National Coalition of Physicians Against Family Violence, and has enlisted thousands of physicians and medical students in the fight against domestic violence.
• Published Guidelines for Adolescent Preventive Services to improve the health of our nation's youth, and additional physician guidelines for recognizing and treating victims of domestic violence and child abuse, and for preventing firearm injuries.
• Established a partnership with The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and six university-community coalitions to launch an initiative called "A Matter of Degree: The National Effort to Reduce High-Risk Drinking Among College Students".

The AMA is the only organization that will remain your advocate throughout your career...begin your involvement now! Join the AMA or renew your membership today.

Call (800) AMA-3211 or visit the AMA Member Center for membership information.