As we approach Learn Serve Lead 2020: The AAMC Annual Meeting, I have been thinking about the message of my first address to you as AAMC president and CEO last year: The status quo is unacceptable. The year since has proved the truth of those words in ways we could not have envisioned. I am so proud of the academic medicine community and the way you have responded to the novel coronavirus pandemic and defined the front lines of the response. You have truly shown the nation and the world our very best.
And yet, as heroic and exceptional as the response has been, the pandemic also exposed the fault lines in our health care system — tremendous health inequities and disparities, too many people who still lack access to health care, and the continuing epidemic of mental health challenges, to name but a few. Fundamentally, for too many, our nation’s approach to health is broken.
More than ever before, it is clear we must do better. That is why today I am pleased to share the AAMC’s new strategic plan: “A Healthier Future for All.” Developed in partnership by the AAMC Board of Directors and Leadership Team with extensive input from the broad community of academic medicine and AAMC staff, the plan lays out a new mission statement in which the AAMC “leads and serves the academic medicine community to improve the health of people everywhere” and 10 bold plans of action to achieve our vision of “a healthier future through learning, discovery, health care, and community collaborations.” Begun before the pandemic, the plan will help us prepare for the post-pandemic world and for whatever the future may bring.
As you can see on the website we’ve developed, the plan focuses on evolving our system of medical education; supporting students in their journeys to become medical professionals; helping the nation’s medical schools, teaching hospitals, and health systems become more inclusive and equitable; increasing significantly the number of diverse medical students and matriculants; strengthening the nation’s commitment to medical research and the research workforce; improving access to health care; enhancing the skills and capacity of the people of academic medicine; and helping the AAMC adapt to change.
In addition, the plan creates two new entities within the AAMC: 1) the AAMC Research and Action Institute, which will elevate our role in policy research and analysis, and 2) the AAMC Center for Health Justice, to amplify the critically important work we are doing to address health inequities and advance health justice as part of our new fourth mission area of “community collaborations.”
As always, I welcome your comments and suggestions about how we can move this important work forward, at aamcpresident@aamc.org.
Looking toward the future together,
David
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David Skorton
President/CEO
Association of American Medical Colleges
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