The AMSA-USA delegation spent this past week at the IFMSA India AM 2012 meeting, fighting off Delhi belly, and promoting our upcoming March meeting (March 9-15) and AMSA National Convention (March 14-17).

This being my first GA, it was eye opening to learn from such varied perspectives medical students have in different regions of the world. While pointing out major differences in medical education and practice worldwide, the presentations and conversations I had with fellow delegates moreso proved that our experiences as physicians in training are very similar. from frustrations with preclinical years to wanting improvements in community health, patient safety, and health policy, IFMSA provides a collective ground for a worldwide student voice to be heard and help us improve our training.

AMSA USA came out strong with a presentation and update of MM2013, which everyone in the plenary session was very tangibly excited about:

We were successful in passing two significant policy statements, one on road safety, and a highly debated measure to improve conflict of interest policies for funding of future IFMSA meetings. Thanks to AMSA, all delegations will now be notified if meetings are receiving pharma funding, in advance, so there can be open discussion - a huge win!

The research and clinical exchanges taking place at the contract fair are a tangible representation of the incredible networking, experiential, and ideological interchanges that occur through IFMSA. 

I presented the Medical Humanities Scholars Program at one of the Standing Committee on Medical Education (SCOME) project sessions, and was thrilled to hear that a liberal arts and humanities perspective on medical education is indeed a global need. The quality and quantity of such experiences in medical universities worldwide range from some to none at all, but students' desire to integrate well rounded topics into their education is clear. I am excited to work with other delegations for humanities curricular reform!

We collectively learned so much from AM 2012, and will surely bring this experience to bear in planning MM 2013.
Get excited, AMSA!!

 
If you thought AMSA's Annual Convention alone was an incredible networking, friendship-making, and exciting educational experience, you ain't seen a GA yet! Be sure to save the dates for March 9-17, and register early! This will be the chance of a lifetime to experience the world literally in your backyard, no visa required!

Big thanks to SG Dan Rhee, VPIA Nida Degesys, President Liz Wiley for their incredible work at plenaries, to the MM 2013 OC (Jerry Abraham, Kyle Swinsky, Samy Bendjamil, Krithi Srinivasan) for their huge planning effort and enthusiasm, to our NEO And NORE Sarah Kleinfeld and Jim Curry for their work on exchanges, to Action Committee leaders Heather Fenley and Lexi Light for support and programming ideas, and to my fellow Health Equity fellow, Drew Lee, for being a great counterpart in our ongoing work to apply our roles in the AMSA office to OC programming and logistics.

Here's to truly global health and leadership,
Aliye Runyan
Education and Research fellow