MAS June 2022 Meeting highlights

The AMA Minority Affairs Section (MAS) met June 9–12 at the Hyatt Regency Chicago.

The MAS Governing Council welcomed its newest four members and elected the following two officers for 2022-2023:

• Chair: Siobhan Wescott, MD, MPH, Association of American Indian Physicians representative
• Vice chair: Priscilla Mpasi, MD, MSHP, FAAP, Young Physician Section representative

During the section’s biannual business meeting, members heard reports from the Board of Trustees, Center for Health Equity, AMA Foundation, Latino Medical Student Association, as well as from the section’s Advocacy and Engagement Committees.

MAS sponsored three resolutions (co-sponsored by the National Medical Association), which were submitted for consideration in the AMA House of Delegates:

• Res. 422: Voting as a Social Determinant of Health
• Res. 611: Continuing Equity Education
• Res. 612: Identifying Strategies for Accurate Disclosure and Reporting of Racial and Ethnic Data Across the Medical Education Continuum and Physician Workforce

Additional section-supported business items in the AMA House of Delegates included:

• BOT Report 16: “Language Proficiency Data of Physicians in the AMA Masterfile” (prompted by original MAS Resolution 613-A-19)
• Res. 203: Ban the Gay/Trans (LGBTQ+) Panic Defense (Sponsored by New York. Co-sponsored by MAS)

MAS held its Leader-To-Leader reception for well over 100 members and allies. The reception was co-sponsored by the Medical Student Section’s Minority Issues Committee and the AMA Center for Health Equity. Attendees recognized the following:

• Six AMA members who were honored during the 2022 cohort of “40 Under 40 Leaders in Minority Health” by the National Minority Quality Forum.
• Twelve fellows who were selected for the inaugural Medical Justice & Advocacy Fellowship as part of a new initiative co-sponsored by the AMA Center for Health Equity and the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at the Morehouse School of Medicine.

MAS Engagement Committee met to discuss issues regarding pathway programs to encourage youth from communities of color to consider careers in medicine. Members explored barriers and opportunities as the section considers the next steps on how the AMA can best partner with other institutions and be a resource for existing grassroots initiatives through the section’s own Doctors Back To School™ program over the coming years.

MAS held a pre-conference webinar on “URM Pathways to Leadership at the AMA.”

MAS sponsored an education session on “Racial / Ethnic Identity and Data Collection in Medicine,” which featured AMA members who identify as Black, Hispanic, Native American, Asian and White. The session identified the highly complicated process across the continuum from medical student to practicing physician, and the complicated and varied data collection methods across organized medicine.

MAS co-sponsored an education forum with the Board of Trustees’ Advisory Council on LGBTQ Issues. The session, “AIDS Foundation Chicago: Policy, Housing & Health Equity,” educated attendees on how the foundation approaches housing as a social determinant of health and homelessness as a public health crisis among Chicagoans who are living with or vulnerable to HIV and other chronic health conditions. Other topics included LGBTQ rights, physician-led advocacy in social media, racial equity, capacity- and coalition-building and among BIPOC-led community organizations.

MAS co-sponsored a workshop with the Minority Issues Committee of the Medical Student Section on “The History of Experimentation and Medical Abuse.” The panel, which included MAS leaders addressed the history of racism, experimentation, and malpractice in medicine, as well as the long-term implications of these violations of the Hippocratic oath on how physicians might better empathize, listen, and advocate for their patients’ concerns and distrust of the health care system.

Visit the education sessions page for additional information on these topics and other sessions.

For additional information on the June MAS meeting, visit the section’s agenda & resources page.