Preventive Medicine - American Medical Student Association

The American Medical Student Association is a history over 50 years is by far the largest and oldest independent association of doctors in-training phase in USA. The association founded in 1950 had its initial name as Student American Medical Association.  The main aim of the association was to provide the budding physicians an opportunity to be a part of the organized medicines. In 1977 the organizational rearrangement was done under Mr. Paul R Wright who presently holds the position of Emeritus Executive Director. In 1978 the organization shifted to its national office in Washington D.C. The association’s Appalachian Health Project in 1970’s and the Generalist Physicians in training Program had over 9000 student participants. AMSA has developed a strong international reputation.  It has also been involved in study tours to Cuba and China in 1970’s. In 1986 with assistance from Pew Memorial Trust it led the first international consortium for exchanging and training physicians with Nigeria, Ghana, Colombia and Mexico. For over 60years now the AMSA has been the voice of the budding physicians in the country.  The members of this association are mainly focused on four aspirations: promoting for quality, economical health care forentire, global health equality, enriching medicine through diversity, and professional virtue, advancement and student well-being. In 2002, AMSA initiated the Pharm Free Campaign to educate and train the medical students to interact professionally and ethically with the pharmaceutical industry. It encourages the medical schools and colleges to frame such policies that limit the entry of medical representatives to meet the physicians with business opportunities in exchange of gifts.  It has also introduced the Pharm Free Scorecard in 2007 which ranks the medical schools as per the influences on them by the pharmaceutical companies.  In successive years also the scorecard were issued. Today, the association is a student governed association with clear intentions of showing the concerns of specialist in-training, developing the medical training and national health. Recently, the Becker Professional Education and AMSA are collaborating together to provide expert reviews towards assisting the physicians in-training to succeed in the US Medical Licensing Examination.  AMSA also organizes various conferences, seminars and seminars as and when required to facilitate achieving their organizational goals.