What is advocacy? As a medical student, I often heard this word thrown around casually in conversations. However, my day to day in medical school was spent studying, reading, and taking classes. I didn't know I had the ability to be involved in making positive changes in the medical field—let alone how to get started. It took me a few years of exploring to fully grasp the breadth of advocacy opportunities available to medical students and residents. This article aims to provide medical students with more information on a few of the opportunities offered by some prominent organizations in medicine and ophthalmology. These groups can not only help us as trainees to learn about the ophthalmology profession but also allow us to participate in work that serves to protect our patients, colleagues, and the future of medicine and scientific research.
AMA
Getting involved with the American Medical Association (AMA) is a wonderful way to take your first steps into the world of advocacy and health care policy. The AMA offers an abundance of opportunities that are clear and readily available. Within the AMA, there are a variety of sections, two of which are the Medical Student Section (MSS) and the Resident and Fellow Section (RFS). These sections provide ample ways to get involved (even when you have little to no prior experience), as outlined below.
Standing Committees
The AMA offers year-long appointments on standing committees. One example is the Committee on Medical Education, which aims to promote medical education initiatives, policies, and legislation. Serving on a standing committee lets you learn more about an area of interest, such as medical education, bioethics, disability affairs, and public health, but it is a long-term commitment.
Convention Committees
Not ready for a long-term commitment or uncertain about your areas of interest? Convention committees are short-term (1 month) committee appointments that occur during the AMA annual meeting and interim meeting to ensure that the events run smoothly. Convention committees include but are not limited to the Logistics Committee, Parliamentary Procedures Committee, Reference Committee, and Rules Committee. These committees are run by an experienced individual, and they allow participants to get involved in the meetings and get acquainted with others in the process.
Policy Writing
There are two policy cycles each year when any AMA member can submit policy ideas to their section and draft a policy proposal that could eventually become AMA policy. These ideas are submitted on Open Forum, a platform on which users can comment on ideas and even get help—or help others in—writing policy. This is a great way to not only submit an idea but also help others with their ideas if you are new and learning how to write policy.
AAO Medical Student Section Representative
The AMA provides one student with the opportunity to serve as the student representative of the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) at the MSS meeting during the interim and annual AMA meetings. This student member also has the chance to provide insight on eye-related policy that is being discussed by the section during the meeting. This appointment occurs once per year.
Within each state, there are also state and county medical societies that offer closer-to-home opportunities. I was actively involved with the Texas Medical Association and served on the executive council for the MSS. Being involved at the state level is much more convenient for someone with a busy schedule because the meetings are close by and these smaller organization offer solid mentorship and direction. If you’re looking to get involved at the state level, Google your state’s name and “medical association” and email the administrators to ask them to connect you and set up a membership.
AAO
In the past couple years, the AAO has begun allowing medical students to join as student members. This is an exciting development for all of us in ophthalmology. The AAO not only offers substantial information on matching to ophthalmology, but it also offers substantial educational resources on advocacy. The AAO sends a delegation to the AMA, and during the AMA meeting, this delegation meets to discuss policy that affects ophthalmology. These meetings are open to medical students to come and learn. For students who are also still learning about ophthalmology and how to make connections and get involved in advocacy, the AAO has a Minority Ophthalmology Mentoring Program, which can help provide you with connections in the field. Further, at the AAO annual meeting, there will inevitably be sessions on advocacy in ophthalmology. Finally, check out AAO’s Mid-Year Forum, during which AAO members lobby members of Congress on issues affecting our colleagues and patients.
ARVO
The Association for Research in Vision & Ophthalmology (ARVO) is an important organization for those who are interested in ophthalmology research. ARVO is wonderful at welcoming all who are involved in vision and ophthalmology, including researchers, ophthalmologists, optometrists, graduate students, medical students, postdoctoral fellows, and other interested parties. Additionally, ARVO has individuals attend from chapters all over the world, which provides great networking opportunities for those who aim to make connections beyond their state. Although the organization focuses mostly on research, ARVO offers some unique advocacy opportunities, which can be found in its advocacy handbook. This handbook walks through how to be an advocate and even features international advocacy toolkits, so if you are from another country, you can learn how to advocate there as well. Each year, ARVO hosts advocacy days during which participants visit Congress to discuss issues affecting the vision scientific community. Occasionally, students are also allowed to attend these events. Check out all of the member-in-training resources ARVO has to offer, as new opportunities constantly arise.
SUBSPECIALTY SOCIETIES
Opportunities for advocacy are also provided by the various subspecialty societies within ophthalmology, such as the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery (ASCRS), American Society of Ophthalmic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (ASOPRS), American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus (AAPOS), American Glaucoma Society (AGS), North American Neuro-Ophthalmology Society (NANOS), and American Society of Retina Specialists (ASRS). I encourage you to check out their websites to learn more about their advocacy opportunities.
CONCLUSION
Medical students and ophthalmology trainees have ample opportunities to become involved in advocacy. Hopefully these resources help you to start investigating ways to get involved now and continue to stay involved over the course of your career.
