The AMA Alliance: making a difference in public health

In last week’s column, I briefly mentioned the combined financial contribution the AMA Foundation and the AMA Alliance have made to medical schools nationwide. This week I’d like to go into detail about the AMA Alliance’s many community service projects and public health activities that promote the wellness of our nation.

The AMA Alliance is a grassroots volunteer organization and health advocacy network affiliated with the AMA that is dedicated to educating and advocating for healthier communities and lifestyles. Founded in 1922, the AMA Alliance was formerly known as the Women’s Auxiliary to the American Medical Association, and later, the AMA Auxiliary. Most of its 25,000 members are spouses of physicians and physicians-in-training, and many physician-members participate in its community work. In February, the AMA Alliance and its president, Dianne Fenyk, were featured in Physician Practice magazine.

Part of the AMA Alliance’s mission is to “support the family of medicine,” and this objective was on full display during an April 2 rally in Washington, D.C., during the AMA National Advocacy Conference (NAC). Dozens of AMA Alliance members joined physicians and medical students on Capitol Hill to urge congressional support for the Save Medicare Act of 2008 (PDF, 74KB), an important bill that would prevent a steep cut in Medicare physician payments scheduled to take effect on July 1, retain current levels for the remainder of 2008, and enact a 1.8 percent increase in 2009. I greatly appreciate the AMA Alliance’s participation in the rally.

The AMA Alliance Capitol Conference, conducted earlier that week in conjunction with the NAC, included a panel discussion on establishing relationships with legislators and a brief synopsis of the advocacy topics that are at the heart of the AMA’s agenda. Attendees of the conference also heard a session on leadership training and media facilitation skills in relation to the Screen Out! campaign, a valuable effort by the AMA Alliance and other groups to encourage film producers, media companies, and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) to stop placing tobacco imagery in youth-rated films.

Now in its second year, the Screen Out! campaign is endorsed by a number of organizations (including the AMA) and has received a significant amount of media coverage in publications nationwide. AMA Alliance members have written 1,806 letters to media companies and the MPAA, and generated 7,514 petition signatures in support of the campaign. Letters to the editor publicizing Screen Out! have appeared in 15 newspapers across the country, and the AMA Alliance has worked with Smoke Free Movies, a movement started at the University of California, San Francisco, to place multiple ads for the campaign in Daily Variety magazine.

As a preventive medicine specialist who is particularly interested in tobacco control, I believe programs such as Screen Out! are especially important to the well-being of our communities. I encourage you to participate.

Other examples of the AMA Alliance’s efforts to build healthy communities are its children’s health resources, which include tips on nutrition and exercise for youths, recommendations to parents about Internet safety, and several books and publications to aid adults when teaching children about health and safety issues. Six downloadable youth health fact sheets that cover youth safety (PDF, 412KB), Internet safety (PDF, 297KB), youth substance abuse (PDF, 233KB), teen sexuality (PDF, 171KB), health lifestyles and nutrition (PDF, 354KB), and bullying (PDF, 567KB) are available as well.

To combat bullying and the growing problem of violence, the AMA Alliance created the Stop America’s Violence Everywhere (SAVE) initiative. Since the inception of SAVE in 1995, AMA Alliance members have developed more than 700 anti-violence programs—including mentoring programs, teen hotline cards, and mental health seminars—and distributed more than two million pieces of anti-violence materials. In addition, the AMA Alliance and the Arpa International Film Festival have developed a pair of public service announcements featuring U.S. Olympic gold medal-winning swimmer Lindsay Benko that address bullying in schools. AMA Alliance activities on bullying complement a comprehensive report on bullying prepared by the AMA Council on Science and Public Health in 2002.

A key to improving public health is working at the grassroots level, and the AMA Alliance offers grant money to help others establish their own community-based programs. The AMA Alliance’s Youth Alcohol Awareness Grant Program provides seed money for local projects that are intended to help eliminate underage drinking and the health and social consequences that can result. AMA Alliance Health Promotion Policy Grants (HPPG) are available to alliances of state and county medical societies that wish to implement public health initiatives in their own communities. Alliances are eligible for one HPPG award per calendar year, although funding is not guaranteed.

The AMA Alliance also helps provide housing for fourth-year medical students as they interview for residencies. Through the Physicians-in-Training Host Program, students can cut down on interviewing costs, become familiar with the community surrounding their potential residency program, and get introduced to the local medical society and its alliance. Whether you’re a physician who could host a student for a night or a student (PDF, 95KB) who might benefit from the experience, I encourage you to take part in next year’s program.

Improving public health includes more than treating patients. It also means working to make a difference in your community, and the AMA Alliance is an outstanding resource to help physicians, medical students, and their spouses get active in that regard. Physicians and medical students—as well as their spouses—are eligible to join the AMA Alliance, and I encourage you to sign up and become a part of what it’s accomplishing on behalf of the profession of medicine and for patients nationwide.

Please send comments, questions, and replies to amaprez@ama-assn.org.