Med School LOANS: a new tool!

This year, the AAMC Organization of Student Representatives (OSR) has focused on the rising cost of medical education and the debt incurred by students. At this year's Annual Meeting, we will be showcasing innovations that may serve as effective ways to mitigate this crisis and will share the data we collected from the Tuition and Debt survey administered by the Student Affairs Committee.

We are thrilled to announce the launch of a tool that the OSR Administrative Board began thinking about several years ago: the Medloans® Organizer and Calculator.

Not surprisingly, 87% of medical students graduate with debt. Managing loans is not only challenging, it's also a painful task that students would like to spend as little time as possible doing. The Medloans® Organizer and Calculator developed by the AAMC's FIRST team is a FREE resource that is available to all medical students. Medloans® Organizer and Calculator will help you keep all of your loan information in one place and manage personalized payment plans when it comes time.

Don't ignore your loans any longer! If you haven't already, we urge you to check this out at www.aamc.org/first, using your AAMC Sign in information. If you don’t have an AAMC sign in or if you forgot your sign in password please contact first@aamc.org.

Please pass along this excellent resource to friends, colleagues and classmates. We hope that this tool will help make managing your debt a little less stressful.

CDC Experience in Applied Epidemiology Fellowship

The CDC Experience Applied Epidemiology Fellowship - Call for Applications

Are you a medical student looking for something different to do next year?

• Are you curious about how public health and the CDC work?
• Do you want to work with state, local and international public health partners?
• Are you interested in being ahead of the curve on prevention and accountability in health reform?
• Would you be interested in:
  • investigating outbreaks of tuberculosis among the homeless, or in a prison population?
  • traveling to Latin America to help set up a surveillance program for pertussis?
  • assessing risk factors for birth defects using national data bases?
  • being at the forefront of injury prevention research?
  • participating in the response to a public health emergency?

Do you want an experience that offers an opportunity to enhance your research skills, build leadership potential, and improve your clinical acumen via a population health perspective, all by working on real-life problems?

Then consider applying to The CDC Experience!

The CDC Experience Applied Epidemiology Fellowship is a one-year fellowship tailored for rising 3rd- and 4th-year medical students, designed to increase the pool of physicians with a population health perspective. Eight competitively selected fellows spend 10-12 months at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) offices in Atlanta, GA, where they carry out epidemiologic analyses in various areas of public health. Examples of previous and current areas of concentration include viral and bacterial diseases, cardiovascular health, obesity prevention, birth defects, STDs, injury prevention, and air pollution and respiratory health.

To learn more about The CDC Experience Fellowship and to apply online, visit us at www.cdc.gov/CDCExperienceFellowship.

Applications for next year's fellowship class must be submitted by Friday December 3, 2010.

Student to Student

Ms. Mandy Harris might be the best person to grace downstate. EVER. She has just used her amazing skill set to create a free way for Downstate students to communicate and most importantly, sell these darn books that have been clogging up our shelves and depleting our pocket book!

Check out the new site: http://www.DownstateStudents.com

It's simple: And it might be the answer to our prayers:

1. Register with your Downstate address (keeps out the riff raff).
2. Login and change your address to the one you really use.
3. Post all your stuff for sale.
4. Collect cash, clear your shelves.

Unite for Site Conference- Social entrepreneursip in health

Call For Applicants: Global Health Idea Incubator Workshop

http://www.uniteforsight.org/global-health-university/global-health-workshop

Do you have an idea for a program, project, or organization? Unite For Sight's Founder and CEO will hold a 1/2-day workshop to help you develop and launch your idea. The workshop will focus on effective healthcare delivery and the importance of best practices in global health, successful strategies of social innovation and social entrepreneurship, and mentoring and guidance on how to establish new initiatives and organizations. The workshop will be a small, intimate roundtable forum. There is limited capacity, and prospective participants are encouraged to apply early.

• Who: Students and professionals are eligible to apply. Successful applicants will have demonstrated an interest in global health.
• When: Two upcoming date options are Monday, August 23 (1:00-6:00pm) and Friday, August 27 (1:00-6:00pm). Both workshops are the same, and you may select one of the date options.
• Where: Unite For Sight headquarters in downtown New Haven (across the street from Yale's Whitney Humanities Center)

Complete workshop details and application instructions online at http://www.uniteforsight.org/global-health-university/global-health-workshop

Roz

AMSA partime opportunity (PharmFree)

The American Medical Student Association (AMSA) Foundation seeks to hire 2 part-time contract qualitative data analysts for the 2010 AMSA PharmFree Scorecard, approximately 15-20 hours/week beginning immediately, for approximately 4 months. Please see the attached job announcement for additional details.

If interested contact: jrld@amsa.org
--
Shazia Mehmood & Elizabeth Wiley, JD, MPH
Legislative Co-Directors
American Medical Student Association


1902 Association Dr.
Reston, VA 20192-1502

July Legislative Update

OSR LEGISLATIVE AFFAIRS UPDATE- JULY 2010
1. HHS launches website to help Americans understand healthcare reform
2. Dr. Donald Berwick chosen to head Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services
3. ACGME lowers limits on resident work hours and increases on-site supervision
4. First lawsuits against healthcare reform are heard in federal court
5. Federal government increases funding and support for HIV/AIDS domestically


1. HHS launches website to help Americans understand healthcare reform
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has launched a new website, www.healthcare.gov, to help the everyday American navigate changes in insurance and other aspects related to healthcare reform. It provides links to determine what insurance providers are available locally, explains healthcare reform as it relates to various members of the population such as the disabled, students, and small businesses, news updates, and strategies for health prevention.

2. Dr. Donald Berwick chosen to head Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services
Dr. Berwick, a pediatrician and Harvard Medical School professor, has been chosen by President Obama to head the nation's Medicare and Medicaid programs. He was chosen via a recess appointment, which requires only the consent of the President and not a vote of Congress, in an effort to bypass a potentially long and difficult Senate confirmation. The CMS has been without a permanent administrator since October 2006.

3. ACGME lowers limits on resident work hours and increases on-site supervision
The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education has put forth a new proposal to further reduce the maximum work hours for residents, especially among those with less experience. The cutoff for resident shifts has been decreased from 30 to 16 hours for first year residents and 24 hours for older residents, with exceptions for special circumstances related to continuity of care. In addition, residents are required to have at least 24 continuous hours off per week when averaged over a month, and first-year residents are required to have on-site access to supervision. These reforms, which are the first issued from the ACGME since 2003, have engendered concerns that residents will not receive enough clinical exposure before graduating or that shorter days will become more stressful as residents must fit the same amount of work into fewer hours. However, other groups are concerned that these restrictions are not sufficient to reduce resident sleep deprivation and medical errors. These new ACGME standards will go into effect this month, and comments to can be made via the ACGME website until August 9.

4. First lawsuits against healthcare reform are heard in federal court
Ever since healthcare reform became law, attorneys general of more than 20 states have filed suits against the federal government stating that the individual mandate to purchase health insurance is a violation of a person's constitutional rights. The first to be heard by a federal district court did so in Virginia on July 1, and hearings of similar suits in Michigan and California are scheduled for later this month. The argument made by Virginia is that the government is not able to require an individual to buy a commercial product, in this case health insurance. The Justice Department is defending the individual mandate and the associated income tax penalty for noncompliance as an extension of Congress' right to levy taxes, reasoning it as a way to ensure that everyone who consumes healthcare in the United States shares a responsibility for paying for it. The ruling will be decided by the end of the month.

5. Federal government increases funding and support for HIV/AIDS domestically
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has allocated $25 million in additional funds for states to provide antiretroviral drugs to patients unable to afford them. This funding does a little to offset the deficits faced by states from the economic downturn and a decrease in employee-based health insurance coverage as patients lose their jobs, but the measure falls short of the $126 million state officials and advocates were expecting to cover the remainder of the fiscal year. Furthermore, President Obama is expected to announce his national strategy for combatting the nation's HIV/AIDS problem later this week.


Your Legislative Affairs Team,

Nathan Copeland, Southern Region
Elizabeth Davlantes, Central Region
William Stevens, Western Region
Frank Bauer, Northeast Region
Thure Caire, National Delegate

MatchRounds.com

We are pleased to announce a new website dedicated to serving medical school students across the country. It is created by two of Northwestern's MS4's (now PGY-1s) who decided there was not a centralized place for match information. MatchRounds.com aims to bring everything needed for a successful match onto one site:

With the calendar finally reaching July 1st, medical students across the country will be signing up for their ERAS tokens and will begin to fill out their applications. This can be a very complex and difficult time for fourth year students. MatchRounds.com is a site founded by two medical students who matched in 2010. We felt that the residency match process was unnecessarily difficult and plagued by an overall lack of information. Our goal at MatchRounds is to make the process as easy as possible. Our site has many interactive tools, as well as evidence based advice, that are designed to personalize each student's application. Since our launch in March 2010, we have had over 700 medical students across the country sign up for our free services. We are confident that your students will find our site helpful, and we hope you will take the time to let your students know about our site. Please visit us at www.matchrounds.com and see what we have to offer!

Thanks,
The MatchRounds Team
www.matchrounds.com

Legislative Update May 26, 2010

I. Health Poll Shows Confusion about Healthcare Reform Persists

II. AAMC Coalition Testifies Before House Appropriations Subcommittee for 2011 Funding

III. Initial Notices on Reform Provisions for Undeserved Areas

IV. House Subcommittee Holds Hearing on Health Care Price Transparency

Health Poll Shows Confusion about Healthcare Reform Persists

A recent Poll of the Kaiser Family Foundation showed that confusion over health reform has declined but remains widespread; In May, 44 percent of the public said they were confused about the new law, compared to 55 percent in April. Moreover, more than a third of Americans (35%) say they do not understand what the impact of the law will be on themselves and their families.

AAMC Coalition Testifies Before House Appropriations Subcommittee for 2011 Funding

Heidi Chumley, M.D., Senior Associate Dean for Medical Education and Associate Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Kansas School of Medicine, May 12 testified on behalf of the Health Professions and Nursing Education Coalition (HPNEC), a coalition of over 60 national organizations coordinated by the AAMC during the House Labor-Health and Human Services-Education Appropriations Subcommittee's public witness hearing on FY 2011 appropriations.

Dr. Chumley testified regarding HPNEC's FY 2011 appropriations recommendation of $600 million for the existing Title VII health professions and Title VIII nursing education programs in FY 2011, and called for an additional investment in the newly-authorized health professions programs under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (P.L. 111-148). In her testimony, Dr. Chumley stated that this level of funding "will not only help sustain the expansion in the health workforce supported in recent years, but will also help to ensure the programs are able to fulfill their mission of improving the supply, distribution, and diversity of health professionals nationwide." She also noted the significant role Title VII and Title VIII programs play in boosting the supply of primary care professionals, improving the diversity of the health care workforce, and providing a number of interdisciplinary training opportunities for students.

Initial Notices on Reform Provisions for Undeserved Areas

The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) May 10 published a Notice of Establishment for a negotiated rulemaking committee on the designation methodology for Health Professions Shortage Areas (HPSAs) and Medically Underserved Populations (MUPs). The rulemaking session was mandated by the Patient Protection and Affordability Act of 2010 (PPACA, P.L. 111-148) as part of health care reform.

House Subcommittee Holds Hearing on Health Care Price Transparency

The House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee May 6 held a hearing to discuss legislation addressing transparency in health care pricing. Specifically, the hearing focused on H.R. 4700, the Transparency in All Health Care Pricing Act of 2010; H.R. 2249, the Health Care Price Transparency Promotion Act of 2009; and H.R. 4803, the Patients' Right to Know Act. During the hearing, Subcommittee Chair Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) expressed the need for greater transparency across the health care spectrum. Ranking Member John Shimkus (R-Ill.) raised concerns that the transparency provisions included in the recently enacted health care reform legislation (P.L. 111-148) only apply to the new state insurance exchanges established under the law.

Rep. Steve Kagen (D-Wis.), sponsor of H.R. 4700, testified his legislation would require all health care providers and manufacturers to disclose publicly the prices of their services, procedures, and products. He said, "Without transparency in all health care pricing, there will continue to be opportunities for fraud and price manipulation."

Testifying on behalf of the American Hospital Association (AHA), Steven J. Summer, President and CEO of the Colorado Hospital Association, explained that the hospital community supports H.R. 2249 and ongoing state efforts regarding price transparency. He said states should work with their hospital associations and health insurers to expand upon existing requirements that provide "understandable and useful information about health care costs."

In a May 17^th Opinion Piece in the Washington Post, the president of Dartmouth College and the president of the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Clinic co-authored “Health Reform’s Next Test.” This editorial shares similar themes to those published by AAMC leaders in the past.

Your Legislative Affairs Team,

Nathan Copeland, Southern Region

Elizabeth Davlantes, Central Region

William Stevens, Western Region

Frank Bauer, Northeast Region

Thure Caire, National Delegate

Summer Public Health Internship

Vacancy Announcement

Job Title: Project Coordinator - Temporary (3 months)

Department: Alice! Health Promotion Program, Health Services at
Columbia

Anticipated Start Date: May 31, 2010 End Date: September 1, 2010

General Description:
The Project Coordinator will act as the primary manager of Go Ask
Alice!, Columbia University's health Q&A Internet resource along with
the web-based outreach functions of CU Move online fitness promotion
program, a!sleep website, and 21st Birthday E-card initiative. This
includes, manage weekly schedule of postings, including their live
publication on Fridays; coordinate, organize, write, edit and publish
site content and mix/schedule of content postings via the content
management system. As part of the Alice! Health Promotion Program team,
the Project Coordinator will assist with other health promotion and
education efforts and will be available for administrative duties as
requested.

Characteristic Duties and Responsibilities:

1. Manage and produce the Go Ask Alice! web site as follows: (75%
time)
a. Supervise work of e-mail admins, researchers, writers, editors,
web admin, and other Go Ask Alice! staff.
b. Manage weekly schedule of postings, including their live
publication on Fridays.
c. Coordinate, organize, write, edit and publish site content and
mix/schedule of content postings via the content management system.
d. With the Director of Alice!, review and/or work on press and
media requests and Go Ask Alice!-related promotional events.
e. Coordinate, oversee, and participate in Go Ask Alice! process
meetings.
f. Seek, audition, and train new Go Ask Alice! staff, such as
writers and information specialists, on a continual basis.
g. Working with HSC communications staff, coordinate marketing of
Go Ask Alice!
h. Recommend enhancements to Go Ask Alice! writing process, content
and overall program management.

2. Support the CU Move online fitness promotion program, a!sleep
website, and 21st Birthday E-card initiative as follows: (15% time)
a. Disseminate e-mails to program participants in conjunction with
other Alice! health promotion staff.
b. Manage weekly schedule of updates, events and other website
activities.
c. With the Director of Alice! and HSC communications staff review
and/or assist with program-specific press and media requests, and
related marketing and promotional events.

3. Attend regularly scheduled administrative and/or task force
meetings as requested. (5% time)

4. Work with Alice! team on other appropriate health promotion
projects and activities. (5% time)

5. Other duties as assigned.

Minimum Qualifications:
Bachelor's degree required. Must possess an understanding of
undergraduate and graduate students' development issues, health needs,
and interests. Excellent and well-documented writing, editing, and
communication skills required. Must be detail-oriented, possess strong
organizational and follow-up skills and demonstrates ability to design
health-related initiatives that reflect the social, cultural, political,
and economic diversity of students. Strong computer skills required,
including PC literacy in a Windows environment, Microsoft Office Suite,
and ability to learn technology quickly. Familiarity with internet
applications and content management systems preferred.

Application Process:
Qualified candidates should submit a cover letter, resume, references,
and a writing sample via e-mail to mm3117@columbia.edu.


_________________________________
Michael P. McNeil, MS, CHES, FACHA
Director, Alice! Health Promotion
Health Services at Columbia

212-854-5453
mm3117@columbia.edu

CDC 6 month internship (Divisin of Global Migration and Quarantine)

Dear Sir/Madam:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), New York Quarantine Station at John F. Kennedy International Airport is seeking student(s) to participate in a three to six months field internship (Public Health) program. The Quarantine Station is part of the Division of Global Migration and Quarantine (DGMQ) which has the statutory responsibility to make and enforce regulations necessary to prevent the introduction, transmission, or spread of communicable disease from foreign countries into the United States.

The Division has twenty quarantine stations located across the country, the CDC New York Quarantine Station is one of the leading location for implementing the comprehensive federal guidelines and mandates across several jurisdiction including the preclearance ports in Bermuda, Ireland, Canada and all port in New York, Connecticut, and Vermont.

The Primary Objectives of the Student Internship Programs are:

1. To put Public Health theory into practice on site via hands-on learning, observation, and didactic learning.
2. Learn basic tenets of Quarantine Station policy and practice to include processing immigrant visas, illness response, non-human primate importation, clearance of items of potential public health threat, and land border, maritime and aviation illness protocols.
3. To obtain knowledge of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention organization and how Division of Global Migration and Quarantine fits within that structure.
4. To fulfill the role of a Quarantine Public Health Officer (QPHO) while on site, “shadowing” staff initially and functioning independently by close of internship.
5. Complete 300 hours, approximately 25 hours per week for 12 weeks during Fall Semester. The length of time can be extended if necessary.

Please find below the point of contact for this internship program.

Internship Point of Contact:

Donald J. Spatz

Acting Officer in Charge

CDC New York Quarantine Station

John F. Kennedy International Airport

718-553-1685

djs2@cdc.gov

If you would like to learn more about our Division, you may visit our website at http://www.cdc.gov/ncpdcid/dgmq/mission.html or refer to the enclosed Fact Sheet. All inquiries regarding the student internship program may be forwarded to the above contact person.

Thanks for your cooperation; we look forward hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Marsha Williams, MPH

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

New York Quarantine Station

John F. Kennedy International Airport

Terminal 4, Rm 216.219

Jamaica, New York 11430

idj6@cdc.gov

718-553-1685 (Office)

718-553-1524 (fax)

Match Website Resource! Thank you Northwestern!

Northwestern University OSR is pleased to announce a new website dedicated to serving medical school students across the country. It is created by two of our MS4's who decided there was not a centralized place for match information. MatchRounds.com aims to bring everything needed for a successful match onto one site. You will find evidence based content, useful match tools such as an interactive timeline, acronym definitions, links to sites such as the NBME and ERAS, and an expense calculator created to estimate the costs of the entire process.

Perhaps the most important part of our site is the MyMatch area, where students can research programs and add them to their list. After choosing programs, the site allows the student to track their interview dates which appear on their timeline, and add thoughts about each program as the season progresses. We even have an interactive ranklist so students can rearrange their programs up until they enter them into the NRMP website. As students begin to use our site, they will have access to information such as which programs have released interview dates to other students and when invites were sent out, as well as aggregate rankings and comments from all of our users. Best of all, our website is completely free to use! Please visit us at www.matchrounds.com and see what we have to offer. Any feedback much appreciated!

Promo video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xY2392H43WQ

Tim Wang, MS3
AAMC OSR Representative
Northwestern University
t-wang@md.northwestern.edu

Student Interest Group in Medical Education. Start it at Downstate!

Are you interested in Medical Education?
Interested in Being a Student Leader?
Let BU help you bring SIGME to SUNY Downstate.

Read on . . .

The Student Interest Group in Medical Education is looking to expand to other medical schools that have students as passionate about medical education as our school does. The reason SIGME came into existence is because upon researching, we found that many schools lack a steadfast training program that provides exposure and hands on experience for students interested in pursuing a career as a medical educator. We formed a local group here at Boston University for the past year and based upon our success and the great response that we have received, we are now looking to expand to other schools. Here are some of the events that SIGME ran this past year:

• A kick off event with the Dean of the medical school presenting a talk entitled, "Why Choose a Career in Academic Medicine?" (flyer attached)
• A Teaching Workshop Series with events such as, "How to Integrate Technology into Medical Education," "Creating an Effective Teaching Environment," and "Assessing your Learner's Understanding"
• A Lecture Series with faculty showcasing the different roles and career paths of medical educators
• An Innovative Leader series with guest faculty highlighting new shapes and forms of curricula (flyer attached)

SIGME has been quite the success at BU. Over 80 people attended our last Innovative Leader Series talk, and our Lecture Series and Teaching Workshop Series continue to attract both students and veteran faculty. We have collaborated with other national student organizations at our school to organize events. In order to continually improve our student outreach, we've created surveys for internal review and have already used them for future event planning. We plan on presenting our work and the organization's structure at a medical education conference this June.

We have already heard from other schools interested in starting SIGME at their schools, and we would love to help you start a chapter at your school. Please contact me if you are interested.

Cheers,

Rounak Rawal

Boston University School of Medicine

rounak@bu.edu

Academic Medicine: Question of the Year

Academic Medicine’s editor-in-chief, Dr. Steven Kanter, poses a question each January in his editorial. The Question of the Year is a launching point for discussion and debate within the academic medicine community. Selected essays responding to the 2010 Question of the Year that are creative, imaginative, innovative, and feasible will be published in an upcoming issue of the journal. Essays must be a maximum of 750 words and contain no more than three references.

May 1st due date for essays: What are the most effective ways to make medical school tuition and fees free to students in exchange for public service?

For more information: http://journals.lww.com/academicmedicine/Fulltext/2010/01000/2010_Question_of_the_Year.1.aspx

Scholarships for research in health systems

If you have research in process or completed on health systems, consider applying for one of these $1000 scholarships:

http://www.academyhealth.org/Communities/content.cfm?ItemNumber=4278&navItemNumber=524

Special Hotel Rates for Clinical Skills Exams

To assist students with their travel costs for the Clinical Skills Exams, the AAMC has negotiated a special rate for examinees at hotels within close proximity of each of the exam sites. Hotel and transportation information for each location is below; most of the hotels provide transportation for examinees from the hotel to the exam site (excluding the LA Hilton).

Please visit the web site for more information: http://www.aamc.org/meetings/clinicalskills/hotelrates/start.htm

global health in India

• Interested in global health or community-based primary health care?
• Want to explore a side of India that few outsiders ever see? (The rural areas of India are home to 68% of its population!)
• Want to experience real public health work in the field instead of a classroom?
• Want to visit a community health & development organization recently profiled in the National Geographic? http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/12/community-doctors/rosenberg-text

If so, then consider applying for this summer's 1 month course in community-based health and development at the Comprehensive Rural Health Project in Jamkhed, Maharashtra, India. Course runs from June 21 - July 19, 2010. Students from Downstate traveling to Jamkhed for the past 3 years have given excellent feedback on their experiences. Ten Downstate students have already taken this opportunity and references can be provided upon request. Applications will be accepted until April 1st but spots tend to fill up by mid-March so apply early to secure a seat. The course is open to medical, public and allied health students throughout the world and the class tends to be very diverse.

For more information, to download the brochure, read student comments, and to download the application, visit http://jamkhed.org/Allied.shtml.

If you're interested in applying or have additional questions, e-mail me (alexander.kaysin@downstate.edu) back as I will be holding an information session sometime in March or April. For more information about CRHP, you can search Jamkhed on Youtube or purchase the book, 'Jamkhed' on Amazon.

Good luck in the new semester!

Alex Kaysin

MD/MPH Candidate

SUNY Downstate COM 2011

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health 2010

International Coordinator, USA

Comprehensive Rural Health Project, Jamkhed

www.jamkhed.org

Public Health

1) NYC Department of Health’s Health Research Training Program

See http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/hr/internship_program.html

Global Health

2) CDC Medical Student elective

See http://www.cdc.gov/EpiElective/

Examined LIfe: Writing and the Art of Medicine

Beginning April 28 to 30, 2010, the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine will host The 4^th Annual Examined Life: Writing and the Art of Medicine, a three-day conference exploring the intersections of writing, medicine and medical education. Our featured presenters this year include:

· Poet Marvin Bell,

· Iowa Writers’ Workshop Director Lan Samantha Chang,

· Author and Professor of Clinical Pediatrics Sayantani DasGupta,

· University of Iowa Professor of Voice and Opera Singer Stephen Swanson, and

· University of Iowa Professor of Composition and Director of the Center for New Music David Gompper.

The program and registration can be found at http://www.medicine.uiowa.edu/osac/examinedlife. We hope you’ll come to add your perspective to the discussions!

Best regards,

Dave Etler
Conference Coordinator
Office of Student Affairs
Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine
University of Iowa
319.335.8058
1191 MERF

VSA

Dear AAMC OSR,

Approximately eighty medical schools and teaching hospitals will use the Visiting Student Application Service (VSAS) to accept visiting student applications for the 2010-2011 academic year! A list of these institutions can be found at http://www.aamc.org/programs/vsas/students.

We recommend you review the VSAS Student Handout, http://www.aamc.org/programs/vsas/students/vsasstudent.pdf, which includes step-by-step instructions on using VSAS, where to find host institution application requirements and application dates, and when you can use the service. A few key highlights are listed below.

• You will only use VSAS if you are applying for senior electives at one of the participating VSAS host institutions.
  If you are applying elsewhere, please continue to use the Extramural Electives Compendium (EEC) for visiting student application information.
• You may log into VSAS once your home school issues you authorizations.
• You may submit applications to host institutions once those institutions have made their electives available for application. This application date will vary from host to host so use the VSAS "Institutions" tab to research these days (the tab, and list of new host institutions, will be available February 3, 2010).

For more detailed information, please review the VSAS Student Handout and visit the VSAS website at http://www.aamc.org/vsas. If you have any questions or concerns please contact our Help Desk at vsas@aamc.org or (202) 478-9878.

Happy New Year!
Melissa Donner

Senior Specialist, VSAS

(202) 478-9878

vsas@aamc.org

Summer internship at the CDC

Dear students,

The attached link describes a paid summer internship in Atlanta with the CDC on unintentional poisoning.
Note that it is open to medical students or public health students majoring in epidemiology.

http://aptrweb.org/prof_dev/internship.html

The deadline is January 15.

Great Imaging Website for Cardio

http://www.med.yale.edu/intmed/cardio/imaging/

Legislative Update

Happy New Year from your OSR Legislative Affairs team. With 2010 comes many exciting legislative changes on the horizon for both medical students and physicians. We will continue to keep you informed on these issues as they develop and, as always, will be available to respond to your emailed questions or concerns.

As you may already know, prior to the congressional holiday recess the Senate passed H.R. 3590: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act more commonly known as the "Senate health care reform bill." Similar to a bill passed in the House, this Senate reform bill has a mandate that all Americans have health insurance, prohibits insurance plans from denying individuals with pre-existing conditions, creates a subsidy program to help low income pay for insurance, and expands the Medicaid program. Items in the bill which may be pertinent to you include:

I. Additional Residency Positions

II. Federally Qualifiied Health Center (FQHC) Spending

II. The Future of Health Care Reform

IV. Other Health News

I. Additional Residency Positions

Section 5503 of H.R. 3590 calls for an increase in the available number of residency positions effective July 1, 2011 and the distribution of these positions amongst training programs. The majority of increases, 75%, will be designated to primary care or general surgery programs. Furthermore, increases will favor regions with physician shortages. In total, the bill allows for an increase in residency positions of up to 15%.

II. FQHC Spending

Health care reform measures proposed sought to emphasize increased funding for Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC) in order to provide primary care services to low-income, underserved, or uninsured Americans. FQHCs include community health centers, migrant health centers, and health care for the homeless. Section 5601 calls for increased funding for FQHCs up to $8.3 billion by 2016.

III. The Future of Health Care Reform

With different health care reform bills passed in the House and Senate, the next steps for legislators is to reconcile the two versions of the bill to present to President Obama. While a publicly funded health care option was included in the House bill, it was dropped from the Senate version in order to garner the necessary 60 votes. House leaders acknowledged that if a public option is not in the final bill, a fair concession plan must be put in place to ensure all Americans now mandated to have health insurance have an affordable option. Other contentious issues that must also be resolved in talks between the two chambers, include how to handle abortion coverage and undocumented immigrants, which taxes to raise to pay for the expansion of insurance coverage in the Medicaid program, how to enforce the proposed payment cuts to Medicare providers, and the level of subsidy offered to low income individuals to purchase insurance. For more detailed commentary on the resolutions needed between the House and Senate Bills, please visit here.

To read the complete text from H.R. 3590 and the read the sections referenced in this email, please visit the Library of Congress, click "bill number" and enter search term "HR 3590."

For some questions and answers regarding H.R. 3590 not discussed in this email, please visit here or New England Journal of Medicine article.

IV. Other Health News

The House of Representatives voted to temporarily delay 2010 Medicare payment cuts to physicians. Read the article.

The President extended COBRA, temporary health care insurance for laid-off workers. Read the article.

NIH approved thirteen more stem cell lines for research use. Read the article

Your OSR Legislative Affairs Team:

Nathan Copeland, Southern Region
nathan.copeland@gmail.com

Amanda Mure, Central Region
amandamure@gmail.com

Ryan Padrez, Western Region
ryan.padrez@ucsf.edu

Matt Reilley, Northeast Region
reimat@gmail.com

Thure Caire, National Delegate
mcaire@health.usf.edu

Anesthesia Research Fellowship

Dear SUNY Downstate Medical Students:

I am pleased to announce that the Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research (FAER) has selected SUNY Downstate Medical Center, Department of Anesthesiology as a Host Department for the 2010 Medical Student Anesthesia Research Fellowship program. FAER MSARF program provides support to medical students (through the Host Department) for 8 to 12 weeks of anesthesia-related research experience.

If you are interested, the next step in the process is for medical students to apply through the FAER website: (www.faer.org/). On your application, you may rank your preferred location for the fellowship. FAER’s Student Fellowship Committee will then match selected students to host departments. We hope you will apply and consider the many opportunities that are available in our Department of Anesthesiology at SUNY Downstate. Should you have any specific questions about our program, please feel free to contact me (Rebecca S Twersky, MD, 718-613-8742; or Email: rebecca.twersky@downstate.edu).

Deadlines and Applications

Student applications will be available for download: Immediately

Student applications due: February 1, 2010

Student notice of award mailed: February 22, 2010

Rebecca S. Twersky MD, MPH
Professor, Vice-Chair for Research
Department of Anesthesiology
Medical Director, Ambulatory Surgery Unit
SUNY Downstate Medical Center
450 Clarkson Avenue, Box 6
Brooklyn, NY 11203
Office 718 613-8742
FAX 718 613-8794
Pager 917 760-1904
Cell 516 316-5345
Rebecca.Twersky@downstate.edu