The AMA Minority Affairs Section (MAS) kicked off its annual meeting with Doctors Back to School Improving Health Outcomes visits to two schools on Chicago’s South Side. The visits were part of a collaborative effort with the AMA Medical Student Section.
A group of 50 physicians and medical student volunteers spoke with 277 students at Daniel Hale Williams Preparatory High School for Medicine and Kozminski Elementary Community Academy. Physicians spoke with students about careers in medicine, while medical students engaged them in interactive stations about healthy food options, hypertension, and mental health and bullying.
The AMA-MAS held its business meeting Friday evening. The keynote speaker, U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus Health Braintrust, gave an overview of legislative priorities to reduce health and health care disparities. The meeting also featured an open forum on AMA House of Delegates reports and resolutions that impact minority physicians and patients.
An awards presentation honored 21 medical students who received the 2015 Minority Scholars Awards. Recipients won $10,000 scholarships from the AMA Foundation, made possible by the Pfizer Humanities Initiative, and one student received a $5,000 scholarship, made possible by Richard Allen Williams, MD, Ms. Genita Johnson and the Association of Black Cardiologists.
These scholarships recognize scholastic achievement, financial need and personal commitment to improving health care disparities among students in groups defined as historically underrepresented in the medical profession.
The AMA-MAS hosted an education program titled, “The new science of unconscious bias,” presented by diversity and cultural competency expert David Hunt, CEO of Critical Measures LLC. This evocative session explored how personal and systemic bias can impact clinicians’ objective evaluation and treatment of others based upon factors such as race, gender, religion, culture and language.
Finally, the AMA-MAS Governing Council re-elected Niva Lubin-Johnson, MD, as chair and Frank Clark, MD, as vice chair for 2015-2016. Learn more about the AMA-MAS.
