 FP and newly elected AMA Trustee Edward Langston, M.D., says the AMA must become "leaner, more responsive and more efficient" for the future. |
Delegates at this year's annual meeting of the AMA House of Delegates stopped short of calling for a major overhaul in the AMA governance structure.
Rather, delegates at the June 14 - 19 meeting in Chicago affirmed the AMA's current structure as "an association of voluntary, individual medical student and physician members ... individually funded and organizationally governed through representation in the House of Delegates."
At the 2002 annual meeting, delegates had voted to investigate transforming the AMA into an "organization of organizations" -- an umbrella group comprising state medical societies and medical specialty associations. However, a special committee appointed to develop a business plan for creating such an entity concluded the move was neither feasible nor advisable.
So this year's delegates called for a review of AMA governance costs, with an eye to decreasing those costs without adversely affecting the association's mission. That exercise will be undertaken by the AMA Board of Trustees, with delegates' directives to continue streamlining AMA operations and to consider priorities assigned to AMA products and services in efforts to create a "more focused and strategic AMA."
Newly elected AMA Trustee Edward Langston, M.D., of Lafayette, Ind., will be involved in the review process. Information generated to date will be used in that review.
"AAFP had an integral and important part in the workings of the study committee that reported back to the House of Delegates," said Langston. "This was not a whitewash process." The thorough work of that committee, he said, will make the task at hand that much easier.
The AMA board is to report back to delegates on its activities and recommendations at AMA's interim meeting in December.
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