AAMC Reporter: November 2007

Record Attendance for AAMC Annual Meeting

A record 4,017 leaders in academic medicine attended the 2007 AAMC Annual Meeting this month in Washington, D.C. This year's theme, "Health in the Balance," examined how medical schools and teaching hospitals are working to maintain balance among and within their missions of education, patient care, research, and community service.

The meeting, held Nov. 2-7, included 575 sessions, 109 exhibit hall booths, and a host of other activities designed to enrich and inform academic medical professionals from around the country.

In his address, AAMC President and CEO Darrell G. Kirch, M.D., urged members to focus on culture change by emphasizing "collaboration, shared accountability, and team performance."

"The culture of academic medicine has lead to some very specific behaviors and structures that may no longer serve us as well they did a decade or so ago," Kirch said. "…The reality is that, increasingly, the world around us is focused less on the achievements of individual experts, and more on collaboration between individuals and groups to solve complex problems."

Specifically, Kirch suggested an increased focus on institutional transparency, intra-organizational teams, and a rethinking of promotion and tenure systems to reflect group as well as individual contributions. Kirch said a more collaborative, team-oriented approach stands to benefit all areas of academic medicine, but in particular could result in better care for patients.

"Our patients, who in many ways stand to gain the most from this change, will benefit by having academic medicine create real ‘medical homes' for them," Kirch said."…Patients want and need their ongoing care provided by a coordinated team, not a series of disconnected consultants."

In keeping with this year's theme, AAMC Chair Richard D. Krugman, M.D., dean of the University of Colorado School of Medicine, said academic medical leaders should help students and residents find more balance between professional and personal lives.

"Truth be told, it is probably easier to learn the facts and the technical skills needed to practice medicine than it is to learn how to balance lives that are malignantly and relentlessly crammed with demands," Krugman said. Even with the many challenges facing medical students, there were encouraging data presented at the meeting that revealed that medicine remains an attractive profession. During his second annual State of the Physician Workforce Address, Edward Salsberg, M.P.A., director of the AAMC Center for Workforce Studies, reported preliminary data from the 2007 AAMC Deans Enrollment Survey indicating that first-year medical school enrollment is likely to rise by 20 percent between 2002 and 2013. Salsberg added that a 30 percent increase in medical student enrollment, which the AAMC first recommended in 2006, may now be on track to occur by 2018. "It is a little behind what we need to achieve the 30 percent enrollment by 2015…but the positive news is that medical school enrollment is up," Salsberg said. "There also is a growing awareness and concern about the shortage."

Several lectures from preeminent leaders in the field focused on finding balance in research, health care resources, and medical education. In this year's Robert G. Petersdorf Lecture, Thomas R. Cech, Ph.D., president of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), highlighted ways in which HHMI and the larger biomedical research community are moving to encourage more translational research, attract younger investigators, and fund more "high-risk, high-reward" projects. In the John A.D. Cooper Lecture, Sara Rosenbaum, J.D., chair, department of health policy at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, outlined ways to provide more and better health coverage and medical care to the country's most vulnerable populations.

The balancing act of a sailboat as it struggles against a headwind became a metaphor for the health care system in the Jordan J. Cohen Lecture, delivered this year by Daniel D. Federman, M.D., senior dean for alumni relations and clinical teaching at Harvard Medical School. Federman recommended select medical students receive specialized guidance in various subjects, including economics and social sciences, with the goal of creating future health leaders.

"Is it ethical to have appointments so short that you can't remove the shoes and socks of a diabetes patient?" Federman asked. "…I believe we should enlist some medical students as agents of change, committed to designing a system of care that is equitable, cost-effective, prevention oriented, universal, and thus moral… if they recognize that a broad systems approach is needed, we'll see roaring progress to windward."

Of course, no meeting in Washington would be complete without a dose of political speculation—and on the eve of the 2008 presidential campaign season, there was plenty to discuss. In the meeting's keynote address, ABC News and National Public Radio political commentator Cokie Roberts noted that health care was a top priority for many voters.

"I think the reason health care has become such a hot issue is that it is a reflection of people's personal experiences, just as economic concerns are a result of the housing market and higher gas prices," said Roberts, who serves on the board of the Kaiser Family Foundation.

"It is anybody's guess how this will shake out, even after a president is elected, but people are paying attention. It is time to seize this issue and run with it."

In this year's "Political Spotlight" event, Fred Barnes, executive editor of the Weekly Standard magazine, commented that "Democrats have done nothing on large health care issues facing America" since taking control of Congress following the 2006 election. Newspaper and broadcast pundit Mark Shields, however, noted that "Republicans will have a hard time arguing that they are agents of change."

To see highlights of the 2007 AAMC Annual Meeting, including summaries of the plenary and focus group sessions and a Webcast of Kirch's address, go to www.aamc.org/annualmeeting.

—By Elissa Fuchs and Scott Harris

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