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Putting a Human Face on Stem Cell Research Politician Physicians Combine Medicine & Public Service New GME Policy Aims to Ensure Quality Education, Patient Care
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A Word From The President:New Challenges, New Opportunities to Serve
In this time of widespread fear and uncertainty about the threat of bioterrorism, we have a tremendous opportunity to serve our local communities. The public needs desperately to hear authoritative information from trusted voices in the face of what verges on mass anxiety. Reports of anthrax attacks and speculations of even more deadly possibilities are confounding our national psyche. In addition to our faculty experts volunteering to appear on local media, we could be of real service by hosting town meetings, public colloquia, and other fora at which our neighbors could hear the facts both about potential threats and about the defenses in place to cope with them. Medical schools and teaching hospitals are viewed appropriately as sources of real information about all things touching on medicine, and we should, in this time of intense worry, seize the opportunity to actively engage our communities in a calming dialogue. Our clinical care enterprise is, of course, a vital component of our country's organized disaster plans for natural or man-made emergencies. Our emergency rooms, burn centers, trauma teams, and other specialized units, as well as our capacity to coordinate regional resources, are indispensable community assets. The essential role that academic medical centers play as front-line responders to mass casualties was never more in evidence than in New York City and Washington, D.C., on Sept. 11. That horrific day brought to light, however, the need for even more coordination and planning to optimize our country's readiness to deal with the kind of heretofore unimaginable catastrophes that terrorists might visit on us. Each of our institutions has an important contribution to make locally but should be busily engaged as well in thinking about how it can tie even more closely into a comprehensive federal network. To stimulate that thinking, we have added a special session to this month's annual meeting that will address hospitals' abilities to handle large-scale crisis situations. In addition, our Advisory Panel on Health Care Delivery, which is meeting later this month, will consider how the association can assist in bolstering, at all levels, our country's preparedness for the next terrorist strike in whatever form it might take. The contribution of medical research to our country's response to terrorism is starkly evident in the sophisticated diagnostic tests now available and the effective antibiotics for treating those suffering from anthrax - both vivid examples of the benefits that everyone now receives from previous investments in medical research. Much more work remains to be done, however, to better defend our country from massive attacks with anthrax or other microbes. We need more effective surveillance systems, even more rapidly conclusive diagnostic tests, much wider distribution of diagnostic capability, and, most important, a major infusion of capital to repair our neglected public health infrastructure. If there is a silver lining to the aftermath of Sept. 11, it is the opportunity for all of us to recognize that clinical medicine is powerless to deal effectively with bioterrorism without a solid and seamless partnership with public health. The chain of defense against bioterrorism is only as strong as its weakest link, and the crucial public health link has not received from the medical community the aggressive advocacy and support it deserves. Now is the time for academic medicine to join with the public heath community in leading the charge for a rapid build up of our country's public health capacity and for a total reconciliation of the medical and public health professions. The least dramatic but arguably most important contribution academic medicine can make to combat terrorism is in the realm of education. Equipping medical students and residents, as well as practitioners, with the knowledge and skills required for early detection of possible biologic and chemical attacks has suddenly become a permanent part of our curricular offerings. So has preparing physicians to help patients with post-traumatic stress and training physicians to work in collaborating teams with other clinicians and public health colleagues. Staff of the association are in close contact with leaders of the administration and Congress to determine how we can best contribute to the national response to bioterrorism. One concrete suggestion has come from Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), who has volunteered to help us spark a national dialogue about the optimal means for educating health care professionals to minimize the threat of bioterrorism. I welcome your suggestions about this and any other aspect of our potential contribution to the new, number one, national priority. Everything changed in America on Sept. 11. Jordan J. Cohen, M.D. |
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Contact Us © 1995-2008 AAMC Terms and Conditions Privacy Statement |
Everything
changed in America on Sept. 11. Everything. For us in academic medicine,
the changes mean new priorities, new responsibilities, and new opportunities
for leadership. Every one of our missions - education, research,
clinical care, community service - requires re-examination and significant
expansion. Let me consider them in reverse order.