Nearly 700 physicians, residents and medical students are gathering—virtually—over five days for the November 2021 AMA Special Meeting to consider proposals across a wide range of clinical practice, payment, medical education and public health topics.
The AMA House of Delegates will work in a democratic process to create a national physician consensus on emerging issues in public health, science, ethics, business and government to improve the care and public health of patients and communities. The policies adopted at this meeting will give the AMA direction and act as a driving force on the future of American medicine. The meeting, held online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, will run Nov. 12–16.
Delegates also will have the opportunity to engage with educational offerings covering issues such as physician contracting and medical staff challenges.
Policy discussion
Among the notable issues that will be addressed at the November 2021 AMA Special Meeting are these 10:
- Strengthening U.S. public health infrastructure and opposing limits placed on public health authorities (PDF).
- Combating public health disinformation (PDF).
- Enhancing privacy for people who use mail-order DNA testing kits (PDF).
- Limiting the authority to grant medical exemptions for vaccinations (PDF).
- Improving maternal health and eliminating maternal health inequities (PDF).
- Refining recommendations for evidence-based policing reform (PDF).
- Ensuring that a diverse range of skin tones is represented in dermatology medical education (PDF).
- Requiring health insurer transparency regarding patients’ out-of-pocket costs for individual prescription drugs (PDF).
- Bolstering the physician workforce in rural communities (PDF).
- Advocating for heat exposure protections for outdoor workers (PDF).
Special sessions
Physicians, residents and medical students attending the November 2021 AMA Section Meetings also had the opportunity to learn from experts on a variety of subjects.
In “Science and storytelling: Making physicians’ voices the loudest in the room,” Peter Hotez, MD, PhD, and a panel of other AMA members offered their advice to doctors nationwide on how to elevate physician voices individually and as a profession.
Read more about this all-section plenary session, which covered six ways doctors can use their voices to help science get heard, or watch below.
Other education sessions covered topics such as end-of-life care communication, medical staff challenges, innovative contracting for private practice physicians, and the art of leadership.
Anyone can view the meeting’s prerecorded education sessions, which include:
- “Issues of ethical importance: Health care for pediatric LGBTQ+ patients.”
- “Compassionate care starts with us: educating medical students on working with patients with intellectual or developmental disabilities.”
- “Medical misinformation gone viral: The science of misinformation spread and how to combat it.”
- “Educating low-literacy patients to understand health insurance systems post-passage of the Affordable Care Act.”
- “A pandemic within a pandemic: Using telehealth to recognize the signs of intimate partner violence.”
- “Developing communication standards between providers and Arab Immigrants/Refugees.”
Follow the meeting
Highlights of the meeting’s key moments and House of Delegates policy actions will be posted daily at the AMA website, the November 2021 AMA Special Meeting website, and the AMA’s Facebook page, Instagram and Twitter account using #AMAmtg.
Addresses from leadership and more will be featured on the AMA’s YouTube channel. After the meeting, be sure to follow the AMA on LinkedIn for additional updates as well.
