By: Maria Filippa Trikantzopoulou Politics has never been on my radar. After all, I have a degree in engineering and just began a career in medicine; it never occurred to me that I could be involved in policy-making and grassroots organizing. Well, at least that is what I thought—until I came to realize how…
By: Siva Sundaram Imagine you’re a primary care doctor seeing a patient one week after his first heart attack. You know the latest evidence, so you tell your patient about a cheap, safe medication that cuts his risk of dying from a second heart attack in half. But there’s a catch: You were never trained…
By: Daniel H. Gouger, MD The morning of my medical school graduation, I woke up early to steam my academic regalia. Then I wrote a public statement about how repealing the Affordable Care Act would devastate millions. In months of scorching D.C. summer heat, I met with elected officials’ offices and called Congressional phone lines,…
By: Frances Gill Last year in 2017, as the Tulane University AMSA chapter Advocacy Chair, I flew to Washington, D.C., for the AMSA National Convention’s Advocacy Day to lobby Louisiana’s representatives—Senators Cassidy and Kennedy, especially—in favor of preserving the Affordable Care Act. Lobbying? The Hill? Arguing with an authority figure? All this was brand new…
