Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2012
For Minority Physicians
Special events featured during AMA-MAS meeting
The AMA Minority Affairs Section held three programs Nov. 9–10 in conjunction with its business meeting and reception.
On Nov. 9, the AMA-MAS and the AMA Medical Student Section conducted an AMA Doctors Back to School™ (DBTS) visit at Kaewai Elementary School in Honolulu. The program reached out to more than 100 fourth- and fifth-graders, presenting healthy lifestyle choices and showing the students that medicine is an attainable profession. The DBTS program offers opportunities for physicians and medical students to introduce and inspire minority children to consider careers in medicine.
The section's business meeting took place later that day. Dr. S. Kalani Brady, MD, provided an engaging presentation in which he stressed the need to change the narrative when talking about racial and ethnic disparities in health care. Dr. Brady is an associate professor with the University of Hawaii at Manoa John A. Burns School of Medicine's Department of Native Hawaiian Health. The meeting also featured an open forum on AMA House of Delegates reports and resolutions that would impact minority physicians and patients.
The AMA-MAS also joined other AMA sections and special groups in hosting a Nov. 10 continuing medical education program about the AMA's efforts to accelerate change in medical education—one of the AMA's strategic focus areas.
Interview initiative captures minority physicians' inspiration
Did you know that only about 9 percent of all U.S. physicians are African-American, Hispanic, American Indian, Native Hawaiian or Alaskan Native? Meanwhile, almost 30 percent of the patient population are from these racial and ethnic groups.
Trends such as this demonstrate the need to increase the amount of underrepresented minorities in the field of medicine. The AMA has attempted to analyze these trends through its Physician Interview Project, an effort to learn from minority physicians what helped guide them in their career paths. The initiative aims to ascertain specific determinants that have proven successful in helping minority students pursue medicine as a career.
View an edited video of interviews with several minority physicians and see how these doctors are making a difference. You also can view the entire interview of each participating physician on the Physician Interview Project Web page.
