Page 44 - Delaware Medical Journal - January/February 2021

AMA Special Meeting of
the AMA House of Delegates
The 2020 American Medical Association (AMA) Special Meeting of the AMA House of Delegates was held virtually November 13-17, 2020.
The Medical Society of Delaware (MSD) was represented by MSD’s AMA Delegate Janice Tildon-Burton, MD; MSD President Joseph J. Straight, MD; AMA Alternate Delegate Stephanie E. Guarino, MD; and MSD Executive Director Mark B. Thompson, MHSA.
The AMA’s House of Delegates is the policy-making body at the center of American medicine, bringing together an inclusive group of physicians, medical students, and residents representing every state and medical field. Delegates work in a democratic process to create a national physician consensus on emerging issues in public health, science, ethics, business, and government
to continually provide safer, higher-quality, and more efficient care for patients and communities.
POLICY DECISIONS APPROVED BY THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES INCLUDED:
Among other steps, the AMA
House of Delegates (HOD) moved
to support widespread telehealth adoption post-SARS-CoV-2, help for state Medicaid programs, efforts
to combat misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines, and a bipartisan congressional investigation into U.S. pandemic response. Here are several other issues:
Improve mental health access for doctors, med students who need help
The HOD adopted new policy to advocate that:
•Physicians, medical students and
all members of the health care team maintain self-care, are supported by their institutions in their self-care efforts, and of care — have access to affordable health
care, including mental and physical health care, outside of their place of work or education.
•Employers support access to mental and physical health care, including
but not limited to providing access
to out-of-network care in person or
via telemedicine, thereby reducing stigma, eliminating discrimination, and removing other barriers to treatment.
• Delegates also directed the AMA to “advocate for best practices to ensure physicians, medical students, and all members of the health care team have access to appropriate behavioral, mental, primary, and specialty health care and addiction services.”
Racism is a threat to public health
Building on its June pledge to confront systemic racism and police brutality,
the AMA has taken action to explicitly recognize racism as a public health threat and detailed a plan to mitigate its effects.
The HOD adopted new policy to:
• Acknowledge that, although the primary drivers of racial health inequity are systemic and structural racism, racism and unconscious bias within medical research and health care delivery have caused and continue to cause harm to marginalized communities and society as a whole.
• Recognize racism, in its systemic, cultural, interpersonal, and other forms, as a serious threat to public health, to the advancement of health equity, and a barrier to appropriate medical care.
• Support the development of policy to combat racism and its effects.
• Encourage governmental agencies and nongovernmental organizations to increase funding for research into the epidemiology of risks and damages related to racism and how to prevent or repair them.
• Encourage the development, implementation, and evaluation of undergraduate, graduate, and continuing medical education programs and curricula that engender greater understanding

of systemic, cultural, institutional, and interpersonal racism, as well as how to
44
Del Med J | January/February 2021 | Vol. 93 | No. 1