Upstate medical students Cristina Fox, Meena Davuluri and Sam Mackenzie are organizing this weekend's Northeast regional meeting of the American Medical Association's student section. Photo by Richard Whelsky.
Upstate’s student chapter of the American Medical Association welcomes 140 medical students from throughout the Northeast this weekend for a regional AMA conference.
Upstate chapter president Meena Davuluri, a second-year medical student, is coordinating the gathering along with fellow medical students Cristina Fox (third year) and Sam Mackenzie (MD/PhD program).
This is the first time Upstate has hosted the meeting. Students from 20 medical schools will attend.
The site selection committee was “very impressed with the commitment, enthusiasm and leadership Upstate students have shown on issues that affect medical students,” Meena said. “We’re a very involved student body with a great deal of passion for the issues that we face as students and those that will affect our work with patients. It’s a great opportunity for us to welcome our peers to Upstate.”
Topics and issues to be discussed include:
* Cuts in Medicare funding. Less support from Medicare for Graduate Medical Education could mean fewer opportunities for medical students to land residencies needed to practice medicine.
* Loan forgiveness. The average medical student debt is $162,000, more for osteopathic students. The Affordable Care Act will cap monthly loan repayments and make other changes to repayment schedules. This weekend’s meeting will help formulate policy positions for the AMA’s National Advocacy Day in Washington, D.C. next month.
* Alternative careers in medicine. A panel discussion features medical school deans including Upstate interim dean David Duggan MD; Dr. Cynthia Morrow, MD, MPH, health commissioner for Onondaga County, and Dr. Robert Corona, DO, chair of Upstate’s Pathology Department.
Students also will participate in mock residency interviews, an intubation simulation clinic and a service project with some of our Center for Civic Engagement community partners.