2011 AMA Interim Meeting
More than 500 delegates are gathered in New Orleans to steer a course for medicine's future.
2011 AMA Interim Meeting
The Big Easy was the scene as the American Medical Association opened its House of Delegates on Nov. 12. AMA Executive Vice President and CEO James L. Madara, MD, is shown addressing the house. Approximately 500 delegates have gathered to consider about 100 reports and resolutions. The AMA's policymaking body, which is scheduled to meet through Nov. 15, will discuss issues such as the national drug shortage, physician payment, health insurance exchanges, prescription drug abuse and disaster medicine.
2011 AMA Interim Meeting
The AMA house rejected a proposed amendment, shown on screen, calling for penalties for pharmaceutical companies that fail to quickly fix a manufacturing problem that results in a critical drug shortage. Delegates said it would discourage drugmakers from continuing to produce niche generic medicines. "This would only exacerbate the problem," said Barton K. Ferris, MD, a delegate for the Louisiana State Medical Society. Delegates approved requiring companies to have multiple plants making the same drug in case of quality or manufacturing problems.
2011 AMA Interim Meeting
David T. Tayloe Jr., MD, a delegate of the American Academy of Pediatrics from Goldsboro, N.C., speaks during reference committee debate on Nov. 13. Delegates debated membership options, drug shortages and the role that physician treatment decisions play in overall health care costs.
2011 AMA Interim Meeting
In his opening-session speech on Nov. 12, AMA President Peter W. Carmel, MD, said doctors need to have their voices heard and urge Congress to avert a 27.4% Medicare physician pay cut set to take effect on Jan. 1, 2012. Unless Congress acts, the reduction would cause massive disruptions in care to the nation's elderly, disabled and military family members. The AMA has asked the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction to work on repealing the sustainable growth rate formula. "It is impossible for the nation to climb out of its financial hole if we do not address the broken Medicare system now," Dr. Carmel said.
2011 AMA Interim Meeting
AMA Executive Vice President and CEO James L. Madara, MD, told delegates Nov. 12 how he is working to strengthen the AMA's voice and sharpen the Association's focus. He said the AMA must be an authoritative but reasonable voice in establishing a sustainable health care system. "We must sharpen our focus and direct attention and resources toward those issues that matter most to physicians, areas where AMA engagement can make a difference, have impact that is truly valued by physicians."
2011 AMA Interim Meeting
The AMA recognized physicians for their contributions to medicine. Winston-Salem, N.C., general and thoracic surgeon Jesse Hedgepeth Meredith, MD (pictured), received the Distinguished Service Award, which is granted for meritorious service in the science and art of medicine. Among his accomplishments, Dr. Meredith was the first surgeon in the Western world to successfully reattach a severed hand. Also receiving the Distinguished Service Award was Chicago neurologist Sandra F. Olson, MD, who was the first female president of the Chicago Medical Society. The AMA honored Don Hayes, MD, with the Dr. William Beaumont Award in Medicine, which recognizes the work of a young physician. Dr. Hayes is medical director of the Lung and Heart-Lung Transplant Program at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.
2011 AMA Interim Meeting
Students from the AMA Medical Student Section spent part of Nov. 11 at New Orleans Mission, which provides social services to the homeless. As part of the effort, Trish Dinh, a medical student at the University of South Florida, conducted an eye screening. The students were promoting the AMA's Healthier Life Steps Program, which focuses on counteracting four key unhealthy behaviors: poor diet, physical inactivity, tobacco use, and excessive or risky use of alcohol.
2011 AMA Interim Meeting
For their community service project, students from the AMA Medical Student Section volunteered Nov. 11 at New Orleans Mission. Heather Scoffone, a medical student at Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University, checked blood pressure as part of the project.
2011 AMA Interim Meeting
The Minority Affairs Consortium Governing Council sponsored a Doctors Back to School visit on Nov. 11 at two schools, the O. Perry Walker College and Career Preparatory High School and Warren Easton High School. The program sends physicians and medical students into schools as a way to introduce children to the medical profession. From left: Kevin H. McKinney, MD, an endocrinologist from Galveston, Texas, and an alternate delegate for the Texas Medical Assn.; student Kellie Middleton from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine; and Dionne Hart, MD, a psychiatrist from Rochester, Minn., and the Young Physicians Section representative to the Minority Affairs Consortium. About 300 students at the schools attended.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Posted Nov. 12-14, 2011
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