Highlights from 2015

Greetings! On behalf of the DGSOM AMA organization, we want to share with you some of the highlights from last year's CMA Annual House of Delegates in October in Anaheim and the AMA Interim Meeting and Research Symposium in November in Atlanta, GA.

UCLA Geffen and CDU had a significant presence at each event, bringing along MS1s to experience the importance of lobbying for health policy and networking with peers and physicians from across the nation.

In all, 7 UCLA students were in attendance at the CMA House of Delegates meeting: 3 DGSOM students, 2 CDU students, and 2 MSTP students (photo right). Here, two 2nd year medical students, Allen Rodriguez and Stacy Songco, passed policies, titled “Medical School Loans for Undocumented Medical Students and Loan Forgiveness Eligibility” and “Encouraging Biomedical Careers for Underrepresented Minorities and Disadvantaged Students”. Both policies are referred for national action.

At the AMA national meeting in Atlanta, we had 7 students represent DGSOM (2 being MSTP students) and 4 students represent CDU. Four of our 2nd year medical students--Lyudmyla Demyan, Ezinne Ihenachor, and Felisha Eugenio & Allen Rodriguez presented their research at the Research Symposium in the following categories: Neuroscience, Surgical/Biomedical Engineering, and Clinical Outcomes.

In regards to the political arm of the AMA, 2 DGSOM at UCLA-authored Resolutions, titled “Stem Cell Tourism” and "Youth Health Pipeline Programs Initiative", were passed as AMA-Medical Student Section policy (see attached). The lead authors were 2nd year students LeeAnn Li and Stacy Songco respectively.

We were excited to indulge two of our 1st years, Dushawn Harley and Mani Vahidi, in the experience, cultivating their skills as public speakers and leaders in medicine (photos left).

Two students were elected to represent Region 1 MSS to the AMA House of Delegates for the coming year, LeeAnn Li and Jacob Gutierrez.

This sums it up! Moving forward, some of the DGSOM AMA board members will be attending the Medical Student Advocacy and Regional Conference in March 2016 in Washington D.C. and the AMA Annual meeting in June in Chicago.