Academic Medicine Leaders Advocate for Research, Patient Care, and Training

On March 26, more than 30 leaders from AAMC-member medical schools and academic health systems — joined by AAMC Chief Public Policy Officer Danielle Turnipseed, JD, MHSA, MPP; Chief Health Care Officer Jonathan B. Jaffery, MD, MS, MMM, FACP; and Chief Academic Officer Alison Whelan, MD — met with lawmakers and congressional staff on Capitol Hill to advocate for policies that ensure access to care and support medical research and medical education. 

In coordination with the AAMC Aligning Leadership for Academic Medicine Conference in Washington, D.C., the leaders held more than 40 meetings with Republican and Democratic offices across both the House of Representatives and the Senate. In these meetings, leaders urged lawmakers to provide robust and sustained investments in the National Institutes of Health (NIH). 

The leaders further urged policymakers to support the health care workforce by investing in Medicare-supported graduate medical education, reauthorizing and funding the Health Resources and Services Administration’s health professions workforce programs, and by providing academic medicine with a National Interest Exception to the $100,000 H-1B visa filing fee recently announced by the Trump administration [refer to Washington Highlights, March 20]. Across their meetings, leaders shared examples from their institutions highlighting how federal policies impact the missions of academic medicine, underscoring the effects of these decisions on learners and providers, along with the patients and communities they serve.