The AAMC, the Mu Lambda chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, and the National Minority Quality Forum (NMQF) jointly hosted a Sept. 25 policy dialogue breakfast, Made for the Moment: Power, Policy, and Progress, held in conjunction with the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s 54th Annual Legislative Conference. Reps. Gabe Amo (D-R.I.) and Troy Carter (D-La.) provided opening and closing remarks for the session, respectively.
The policy dialogue also included a panel on the future of health policy and improving health outcomes across the nation. Panelists included Tannaz Rasouli, MPH, AAMC senior director of public policy and strategic outreach, and Gary Puckrein, PhD, president and CEO of the NMQF. During the panel, Rasouli detailed how academic medicine, and its commitment to the important and ongoing work of ensuring a physician workforce that is accessible to individuals from all backgrounds, help to support health equity policy. She also noted the role that student financial aid and the Health Resources Services Administration (HRSA) K-12 pathway programs play in supporting academic medicine in recruiting and retaining students across all backgrounds into health professions careers. Moreover, Rasouli outlined the damaging impact of federal funding freezes and grant cancellations across the National Institutes of Health and HRSA affect academic medicine and the health workforce pathways.