Yale School of Medicine's (YSM) chapter of the American Medical Student Association (AMSA) has been awarded the prestigious AMSA 2024 Paul Wright Chapter Success Award. AMSA’s mission is “to educate and empower diverse future physicians to become unapologetic advocates for equitable healthcare and foster generations of culturally respectful leaders.”
Named after AMSA Executive Director Emeritus Paul R. Wright, this annual award goes to chapters “that have promoted AMSA’s mission of inspiring future physicians through local events, innovative programming, leadership development or calls to action.” The award description also provides, “The emphasis of this award is chapter commitment to improving member solidarity by increasing awareness, recruitment, and involvement in their chapters." The award will be presented at the AMSA national conference in Washington, DC in June.
In applying for the award, the YSM chapter stated, “This year, AMSA at Yale focused on expanding into the community by producing op-eds, advertising at various community events, and spearheading efforts to promote entrepreneurial ideas to encourage students to envision innovative solutions to the most pressing problems facing physicians and health care workers today.”
Highlights of the Yale chapter’s work in the last year include:
- Hosting Innovation Networking Night with over 200 attendees. This was a university-wide venture and med tech networking night with Yale Schools of Medicine, Nursing, and Public Health, in collaboration with the Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking and the Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy.
- Funding a semi-finalist team to compete at AMSA’s annual national medical simulation competition.
- Hosting a theater for social change performance on abortion care at AMSA’s Future Physicians for Change conference.
- Publishing research on national gun control and voting laws.
- Advocating for resident unions and disability rights for medical students.
- Conducting women's health sessions on abortion care at YSM.
- Hosting a documentary film screening of At Your Cervix and panel discussion in collaboration with YSM’s Office of Medical Education and Program for Biomedical Ethics.
The current YSM AMSA leadership includes: first-year MD students Uma Alappan; Shadrack Frimpong, PhD, MPH; Jaiveer Singh; and Isabel Wang. Second-year MD students Pavan Khosla and Ryan Sutherland, MPhil, MPH, are the immediate past leaders of the YSM chapter.
The YSM AMSA chapter concluded their award application by stating, “As a chapter of scholar-activists committed to shaping the future of medicine to be more equitable and just for all, our continued advocacy and education campaigns for the upcoming year will be even more ambitious. As a small but growing chapter, we have been fortunate to have a dedicated group of volunteers that have helped make this year a memorable one, and we look forward to working to continue to expand our efforts in the community beyond Yale to promote the values and vision of AMSA as disruptive innovators, social justice advocates, and future physicians dedicated to making the change we wish to see in this world happen.”