state advocacy
Government Relations Committee
- AMSNY Diversity in Medicine/ Post-Baccalaureate Programs
- Doctors Across New York Program (DANY)
- Graduate Medical Education
- HEAL-NY Capital Grant Program
- HIV Source Testing
- Medical Malpractice Reform
- STEP Program
- Stem Cell
- Uniform Anatomical Gift Act
AMSNY Diversity in Medicine/ Post-Baccalaureate Programs
The AMSNY Diversity in Medicine/Post Baccalaureate Program exposes high school and college students to careers in health and medicine, primarily focusing on training and preparing minority students to pursue careers in the medical field. AMSNY recognizes that there are a pool of students with the intellectual capability to complete medical school, but who have been academically compromised due to a variety of socio-economic factors including poverty, inadequate education, and low personal and societal expectations. The AMSNY Diversity in Medicine/Post Baccalaureate programs increase the number of minorities in medicine and seek to alleviate the maldistribution of health professionals in underserved areas.These programs include the Post Baccalaureate Program at the University at Buffalo, the Learning Resource Center at the Sophie Davis College of Biomedical Sciences, the Pathways to Careers in Medicine & Research Program at the City College of New York, the Physician Career Enhancement Program at Staten Island University Hospital, as well as expanded and new diversity initiatives.
Doctors Across New York Program (DANY)
Several years ago, AMSNY participated in the New York State Ad Hoc Physician Workforce Planning Group with a variety of other health care stakeholders to advocate for the creation of a program to address the State’s maldistribution of physicians in both our inner cities and rural communities. Doctors Across New York (DANY) is a state-funded initiative enacted in 2008 to help train and place physicians in underserved communities. The program provides Physician Loan Repayment and Physician Practice Support to physicians in any specialty, if they can demonstrate that the specialty is in need in the underserved community.
Physician Loan Repayment provides up to $150,000 in loan repayment (i.e., repayment of qualified educational debt) for a five-year service obligation in an underserved area. Physician Practice Support provides up to $100,000 in practice support funding over two years for providing medical services in an underserved area. Funds are available for salary enhancements, sign-on bonuses, or other direct payments to physicians.
We are now working to identify areas of improvement for the program in order to ensure that the program's mission and goals of recruitment and retention of physicians in underserved areas is met.
New York trains about 16,000 physician residents per year, more than twice as many as any other state. This training commitment represents approximately 17 percent of all physician resident training in the United States. Independent research has found that the nation will be facing a physician workforce shortage due to the demands of an aging population and that an increase in physician workforce production is needed. It is precisely for these reasons that the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) is calling for a 30 percent increase in medical school enrollment to address the pending shortage. Although medical residents continue to be the main health profession eligible for Medicaid direct graduate medical education/indirect medical education (DGME/IME) payments, graduate nurse and other health professions students in 17 states also have their training subsidized with such payments. AMSNY supports accountability and transparency, but opposes harmful cuts that would jeopardize the quality of graduate medical education in NYS.
New York State passed the Health Care Efficiency and Affordability Law for New Yorkers Capital Grant Program in 2004, often referred to as the HEAL NY Program. The HEAL NY Program provides funding for capital restructuring, and health information technology grants. AMSNY supports funding for innovative methods to improve health care through advanced health information dissemination and sharing, while protecting the privacy of patients.
Occupational exposure to blood or body substances is a traumatic event for a health care or public safety professional. In New York State, the ability of an exposed health care worker to learn if they have been exposed to HIV from such an event is limited when a source patient is unable to consent to testing, such as when the individual is critically ill, unconscious or deceased. New York is one of only two States that do not have provisions for occupational exposure source testing.
Without the ability to learn if HIV is present, an exposed medical student or other health care worker generally begins a complex, dangerous and expensive treatment of post-exposure prophylaxis for HIV exposure to reduce the risk of seroconversion, even though there may not be an actual exposure to HIV. Source patient testing legislation would provide the necessary medical information to allow appropriate treatment in incidences of occupational exposure in a manner that protects the privacy of the source patient.
Further delay in passage of HIV Source Testing legislation means that more persons will need to endure a lengthy course of post-exposure prophylaxis medication, as well as the stress of not knowing if they have been exposed to HIV. In each case, one test could have provided the answer and prevented a potentially unnecessary course of medical treatment. Confidential source patient testing would provide the protection our colleagues deserve.
For medical schools, the cost of medical malpractice insurance, which covers doctors and other professionals in the medical field for liability claims arising from their treatment of patients, has been increasing at unsustainable rates. Without needed medical malpractice reforms, the cost of insurance for physicians will continue to rise and the supply of doctors in certain specialties, like obstetrics, will continue to fall. Moreover, the increasing cost of medical liability insurance will drive some physicians out of the field and will discourage young people from entering the medical profession. In addition, the cost of medical malpractice takes needed funds away from the educational and teaching missions of the medical schools. Resolving this problem is necessary to ensure that New Yorkers are able to access a full range of health care services.
At a time when the State is making a concerted effort to improve the health care delivery system and bring more doctors to underserved areas, high malpractice insurance rates continue to discourage physicians, especially young physicians, from practicing in New York.
Science and Technology Entry Program
The AMSNY STEP program is the only statewide program for high school and mid school students; it’s conducted at ten medical schools throughout New York State. Our STEP programs provide students with counseling and tutoring, which enabled our 450 enrolled students (2007-2008) to complete 34,659 hours of research and internship experience. Additionally, the STEP program provides opportunities and exposure to the medical fields for underrepresented minorities. The AMSNY STEP program is highly successful, with all students attending college, 90% in a health related field, and students have showed measured improvements in both GPA and Advanced Placement courses. AMSNY advocacy efforts will focus on restoring STEP funding to its previous levels and work to educate state legislators about the program’s successes so that no further cuts will be implemented.
In SFY 2007-08, the Governor and Legislature showed their commitment to stem cell research by creating the Empire State Stem Cell Board (ESSCB) and the Empire State Stem Cell Trust, providing up to $600 million over 11 years for stem cell research. Over the past few years, funding has been made available for stem cell research activities that encourage collaborations among scientists, facilitate the acquisition and development of specialized equipment, support researcher-initiated stem cell research, and increase the capacity of institutions in New York State to engage in stem cell research. Most recently, the Funding Committee of the ESSCB approved $2.1 million in new funding that will offer college students in New York State the opportunity to learn about stem cell science and experience first-hand the specialized techniques required for pursuing a stem cell research career.
New York State is home to one of the strongest biomedical research communities in the entire world. With fifteen medical schools, and approximately 100 teaching hospitals and other top quality research institutions, New York scientists are conducting some of the most cutting-edge, exciting research. Governor Paterson and the Legislature’s support of this initiative positions New York as a leader in stem cell research, and brings hope to millions of people suffering from a range of debiliating diseases.
The Uniform Anatomical Gift Act (Article 42 of the Public Health Law) governs the donation of organs, tissues and whole bodies for medical purposes which include transplantation, education and research. New York currently operates under the original Act of 1968. Since the Acts original adoption, advances in medicine and medical education necessitate changes to the way in which donations are made. The proposed revisions in A. 6966 (Gottfried) would help make the way in which donations are made more consistent with today’s process for donation of organs, tissues and whole bodies. More importantly, it would help increase the overall number of donations which are severely needed.
The proposed revisions would expand the list of individuals able to make a gift after the donor’s death; eliminate confusion over whether a donation can be made if a family member or loved one objects to the donation; allow individuals to make end of life decisions for an incapacitated person they are caring for; assist procurement organizations and whole body donor programs in determining who they can accept a donation from; and provide some protections to procurement organizations and whole body donor programs if a gift was accepted on good faith and was later determined the donor would not have wanted to make the gift.
Anatomical donations are the lifeblood of medical education. Without the generous donation of human cadavers, medical students would not be able to learn their craft and practicing physicians would not be able to keep up to date on the use of the latest technology and medical devise.
