AAIM


Summary of APM Long-Range Plan

The United States should set the standard for all aspects of medicine, which includes providing excellent care to patients, educating the next generation of physicians and other providers, and conducting groundbreaking research. Due to their training, experience, and responsibility, physicians must lead every aspect of American medicine.

As the largest physician specialty in the United States, internal medicine cares for the most patients, educates the most physicians, and conducts the most research. Given the opportunities and challenges that medicine faces, internal medicine as a discipline must provide much-needed leadership. This leadership must advocate for patients by increasing access to medical care, improving the quality of care, and changing the mechanisms for delivering care for all Americans.

Within the internal medicine community, the Association of Professors of Medicine (APM) focuses on internal medicine from the perspective of the traditional academic medical missions of education, research, and clinical care. Moreover, the association is responsible for the entire spectrum of internists (general internists, hospitalists, geriatricians, subspecialists, and sub-subspecialists). Therefore, to improve the quality of health care, APM must contribute to:

  • Improving the educational continuum for students, residents, fellows, and practicing internists.
  • Strengthening the US medical research enterprise, which includes addressing the decline of physician scientists.
  • Understanding the nexus of education, research, and patient care, which will result in higher quality medicine in the future.

To meet this ambitious goal, APM recommends a three-step plan:

Step One (Immediate)

  • Continue to meet APM’s mission. The association should maintain its current activities, programs, and initiatives. Additionally, APM should enhance efforts to support, foster, and develop current and future chairs of departments of internal medicine. In addition, APM should continue its commitment to ensure that medicine reflects the gender, ethnic, and cultural diversity of the United States. Also, the association should pilot innovative projects, such as creating a consulting service for departments of internal medicine.
  • Solidify the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine (AAIM) to increase the collaboration, influence, and effectiveness of APM (and the other academically focused internal medicine associations that constitute the alliance) in education, research, and patient care. With APM’s leadership, AAIM should create single governance, develop a unified dues structure, expand membership criteria to include more faculty and staff from departments, and shift sponsorship of The American Journal of Medicine from APM to AAIM in 2005.
  • Recruit a distinguished internist to serve as a dedicated (salaried) part- or full-time president.

Step Two (Medium-Term)

  • Meet with the leaders of the research-focused organizations (such as the American Federation for Medical Research, the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians, and the Association for Patient-Oriented Research) to determine how APM can help address the decline of physician scientists. APM should use the recommendations that result from these discussions as the basis for a strategy concerning physician scientists. Additionally, APM should partner with the research-focused organizations as well as other associations interested in the research mission (such as the subspecialty societies) to strengthen the enterprise, particularly in terms of physician scientists.
  • Meet with the leaders of the American College of Physicians (ACP) and other internal medicine organizations that represent general internists, hospitalists, geriatricians, subspecialists, and sub-subspecialists. APM should determine how the association can help ACP and these organizations address clinical issues, such as improving the quality of health care, providing adequate reimbursement for physicians, and containing the cost of malpractice insurance. Additionally, APM should collaborate with ACP and these organizations to coordinate internal medicine’s presence at a national level (in terms of patient care issues).
  • Support the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) in its role as the organization sanctioned by the medical profession to certify and recertify internists. APM should work with ABIM and other members of the internal medicine community to assess the competence of internists throughout their careers.

Step Three (Long-Term Strategic Vision)

  • Work to unify internal medicine to increase the discipline’s effectiveness at a national level, which will strengthen education, research, and patient care. APM should use the integration of AAIM, the partnership for physician scientists, and the alignment for patient care to help internal medicine develop a qualified, articulate, and formidable voice.

In July 2003, the APM Board of Directors unanimously approved these principles, which were developed by the association’s Long-Range Planning Committee. To develop these principles, the committee interviewed more than 20 leaders in American medicine, met regularly for 18 months, and had an external “consultant” critique the finished product.

Working in concert, the board and committee will discuss these principles with:

  • APM members. Besides assessing the level of support for the principles, these discussions will help the board and committee draft an implementation strategy for APM’s long-range plan. During the 2003 APM Fall Symposium, the board will begin this process with focus groups consisting of association members.
  • Leaders of the Association of Program Directors in Internal Medicine, the Association of Subspecialty Professors, the Clerkship Directors in Internal Medicine, and the Administrators of Internal Medicine. Because the integration of AAIM is the first step of the process, the board and committee must work with these associations to assess the level of support for this action, determine the implementation strategy for integration, and guarantee that each association will maintain its integrity within an integrated alliance.
  • Leaders in American medicine, particularly members of the academic medical and internal medicine community. The board and committee will invite these leaders to critique the principles and suggest implementation strategies.

Based on this feedback, the APM Board of Directors and Long-Range Planning Committee will finalize the plan. During the 2004 APM Winter Meeting, the board and committee will present the APM Long-Range Plan—which includes these principles and the implementation strategy—to association members for their review, comment, and approval.