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Dear Colleagues:
We are currently living through a time that challenges our fundamental and core values to advance education, science, and medicine. We know that each and every Alliance member has the potential to be drastically impacted by the actions of the federal government including the recent travel ban and cutting funds to the agencies that support health care in the United States—NIH, HHS, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, and VA, among others.
Many of you have reached out to Alliance leaders to ask “what can we do?” Please be assured that AAIM is in near-constant contact with all of the key stakeholders in the academic medicine arena, including AAMC, ABIM, ACP, and Intealth, to ensure that our leaders and members are as informed as possible and that we can collaborate on advocacy efforts to support faculty, administrators, learners, and patients in these changing times. For more details on Alliance advocacy collaborations, please visit im.org/news/advocacy.
And each and every Alliance member can also be part of the advocacy effort! Educate your local and state elected officials on the social and economic impact of changes to medical education, research, and patient care. You can work with your institution’s marketing and communications, legal, and governance teams to find the best information and data to share with policymakers and decision influencers.
Internal medicine doesn’t like to brag but our value speaks volumes. We are often the largest program or department in medical schools and teaching hospitals; we train the largest portion of the future physician workforce, both US and IMG learners; and as part of the primary care and subspecialty physician workforce, we provide essential care for an enormous segment of the US population. Our voices matter, so it is essential that we use them.
The Alliance has demonstrated over time that we are Even Better Together, and now is our opportunity to support each other in our shared mission of empowering academic internal medicine professionals through use of our voices in our individual communities.
Sincerely,
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