Report from the AMA Annual Meeting

Report from the AMA Annual Meeting


Colorado physicians represent you in Chicago

Kate Alfano, CMS Director of Communications

Your elected delegation of Colorado physicians traveled to Chicago in June to represent you at the American Medical Association House of Delegates meeting and conduct other business on your behalf. We are grateful to these volunteer physician leaders for their time and dedication to organized medicine. Of particular note: 

  • Carolynn Francavilla Brown, MD, became chair of the AMA’s Private Practice Section.  Dr. Francavilla looks forward to amplifying the voice of private practice physicians nationwide in this role.
  • AMA Delegates also passed a report supporting the use of appropriately trained virtual assistants in medical practice, and pledged to help create tools to support physicians use of virtual assistants. This policy was created based on a resolution originally offered by Dr. Francavilla.
  • Jan Kief, MD, became vice chair of the Council on Long-Range Development and Planning. 
  • Tamaan Osbourne-Roberts, MD, continued his service as a member of the Council on Science and Public Health.

Colorado medical student leaders also traveled to Chicago to participate in the AMA Medical Student Section Annual Meeting and the AMA House of Delegates meeting.

Dakota Hitchcock, MS4 at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, presented research on the geospatial impacts on initial melanoma stage, highlighting the health care disparities in rural communities. She also testified in support of opposing capital punishment (which was adopted by the House of Delegates) and in opposition to eliminating the requirements made for the executive vice president position at the AMA (which was not adopted). Hitchcock was also a team lead for the Medical Student Section for RefCom CCB (Committee on Constitution and Bylaws), leading the efforts and testimony from medical students presented in this reference committee.

  • Hojin Seo, MS4 at Rocky Vista University, presented her research on a rare case of urinothorax, and created and led programming as part of her work on the Medical Education Committee.
  • Sonia Abraham, MS4 at RVU, created and led programing during the MSS Assembly as chair of the AMA’s Medical Student Section Minority Issues Committee.
  • Renee Dreher and Marlee Akerson, MS1s at CU, attended their first AMA Meeting and served as the CU AMA chapter delegates to the MSS Assembly.
  • Jason Seeley, MS1 at RVU, attended his first AMA Meeting and served as the RVU AMA chapter delegate to the MSS Assembly.

Here are other national highlights:

  • Bruce A. Scott, MD, an otolaryngologist and private practice owner from Louisville, Ky., was inaugurated as the 177th President of the AMA, promising to spend his tenure fighting for members, for the profession and for patients. Dr. Scott was the special guest at our 2023 CMS Annual Meeting.
  • Bobby Mukkamala, MD, was elected president-elect of the AMA and will be inaugurated at the 2025 AMA Annual Meeting.
  • The LGBT+ Caucus was officially elected into Section status, which will allow one Delegate and Alternate to sit in the House of Delegates.
  • Medicare pay reform is one of the AMA’s top advocacy priorities, and the AMA is working to advance comprehensive fixes to physician payment for Medicare. One fix would provide physicians with an annual, permanent inflationary update in Medicare tied to the Medicare Economic Index.

The Interim Meeting of the American Medical Association will be held in Buena Vista, Fla., in November, when the Colorado Delegation will again represent you on the national stage.

Thank you to the physicians who volunteer their time on the Colorado Delegation to the AMA: 

Lee Morgan, MD, AMA Delegation Chair, David Downs, MD, FACP, Carolynn Francavilla, MD, Mark Johnson, MD, MPH, Jan Kief, MD, Rachelle Klammer, MD, Tamaan Osbourne-Roberts, MD, Lynn Parry MSc, MD, Brigitta Robinson, MD, FACS, Michael Volz, MD

Thanks, also, to the medical students who attended this year: Sonia Abraham, MS4, RVU, Marlee Akerson, MS1, CU, Renee Dreher, MS1, CU, Dakota Hitchcock, MS4, CU, Jason Seeley, MS1, RVU, Hojin Seo, MS4, RVU