Fall 2009
Volume 5
Issue No. 2
Universal Access and Human Rights
- Global Pulse
- About Us
- The Editors
- Submission Guidelines
- Global Pulse Blog
- Archives
- Fall 2009: V. 5, No. 2
- Editorial
- Letter from the Editor
- Featured Interviews
- Leonard Rubenstein
- Ellen't Hoen
- Dr. Anthony So
- Personal Reflections
- Research Articles
- Arts
World AIDS Day - December 1, 2009
A Letter From AMSA's National President: Lauren Hughes MD, MPH
December 1st, 2009
A recent graduate of the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, Lauren Hughes, MD, MPH, is honored to serve as the 2009 - 2010 National President of the American Medical Student Association. Prior to being elected president, she served three terms on the National Board of Trustees as a Region VIII Trustee, the National Junior Trustee-at-Large, and as the National Vice President for Internal Affairs. Lauren also served two terms on the AMSA Foundation Board of Directors and created the Rural Health Scholars Program within the AMSA Foundation. She looks forward to advancing AMSA as the premiere professional development organization for medical students.
An alumna of Iowa State University, she graduated with her BS in Zoology and BA in Spanish in 2002. During her undergraduate years, she studied abroad in Spain, served as president of her senior class, and interned at the National 4-H Council and at the National Cancer Institute. She co-directed the Freshman Honors Program, was awarded four consecutive presidential leadership scholarships, and established the Iowa 4-H Day at the Legislature program.
After graduating from Iowa State, Lauren volunteered for AmeriCorps at LifeLong Medical Care, a federally-qualified community health center, in Berkeley, CA. She provided health insurance outreach to low-income children and families, worked as a medical assistant at a free medical clinic and youth homeless shelter, and sewed baby quilts for expectant mothers. She lived and worked in New York City for one year before starting medical school at the University of Iowa in 2004.
During her education at Iowa, Lauren researched infectious diseases in Brazil, was a Robert Graham Center visiting scholar, and rotated overseas at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, and at the Gonja Lutheran Hospital in northeastern Tanzania. She served as an Iowa City Free Medical Clinic volunteer, co-taught a first-year elective called Community Health Outreach, and was elected as president of the Medical Student Section of the American College of Preventive Medicine in 2006. She completed her MPH in health policy at The George Washington University in 2007, interning at Iowa Senator Tom Harkin's Washington, DC, office and at the National Association of Community Health Centers.
December 1st, 2009
 Poster by Dan Rhee |
AMSA is very pleased to unveil this issue of Global Pulse - not only a showcase for student work, but a dynamic and evolving space for the exchange of ideas. True to AMSA's principle that "it takes more than medical school to make a physician," Global Pulse continues to provide an outlet for discussing some of the most challenging and inspiring work that medical students encounter, while also adapting to new popular technologies, refining its quality, and steadily increasing its impact. The present issue, published for World AIDS Day 2009, highlights AMSA's commitment to upholding the rights of patients and doctors through medical professionalism and advocacy at home, as well as providing opportunities for meaningful experiences and international outreach abroad. |
| AMSA's commitment to global health runs deep: as one of our strategic priorities, global health equity addresses the interconnectedness of humanity, and our responsibility to provide rational and professional assistance to all people, regardless of the country in which they live or the socioeconomic determinants they face. It is a truism that we live and practice in a world that is complex and diverse far beyond the boundaries of traditional medical training. Increasingly, students consider the opportunity to volunteer or study abroad a key component of a medical education. While motivated in part by the thrill of travel and the opportunity to improve language and cultural competency skills, physicians-in-training across the board cite the commitment to give to those in need. However, after the initial excitement comes the hard work of working abroad both effectively and respectfully - and AMSA is here to help. AMSA is also a hub of student advocacy for global health justice, supporting and training leaders for a lifelong commitment to health equity. We support a wide array of programs, including the Global Action Committee, the Global Health Scholars Program, SeaCouver, the AIDS Advocacy Network, annual leadership institutes, and bilateral exchanges through the International Federation of Medical Student Associtions (IFMSA).
The Global Pulse works in concert with these resources - by providing a forum for discussion of student experiences in the journal, highlighting advocacy efforts by AMSA members on the blog, and interviewing world experts on issues in which AMSA members are interested. This year, for the first time, Global Pulse joined forces with the medical Global Health Leadership Institute (GHLI) to create the seminal "GHLI 2009: Human Rights." Thirty medical and pre-medical student leaders from across the country gathered at the AMSA national headquarters in Reston, VA, for a weekend in October to discuss current global health priorities, debate the role of human rights in medicine with keynote speaker Leonard Rubenstein, plan advocacy for affordable drugs, and explore the role of writing in global health. In this issue, Global Pulse opens up these topics to all of AMSA through the Featured Interviews section and the blog, using technology old and new to promote awareness and involvement.
As physicians-in-training, we entered medicine to devote our lives to the service of humankind. Each year, World AIDS Day reminds us to renew that commitment to service in the face of some of the greatest moral and social challenges in the history of the modern world. On the pages of Global Pulse you will find stories from physicians and students who are living that commitment around the world. Through substantive and coordinated action, we can change the course of global health disparities. AMSA's global health community is here to help.
Lauren Hughes, MD, MPH AMSA National President |
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About the Author
A recent graduate of the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, Lauren Hughes, MD, MPH, is honored to serve as the 2009 - 2010 National President of the American Medical Student Association. Prior to being elected president, she served three terms on the National Board of Trustees as a Region VIII Trustee, the National Junior Trustee-at-Large, and as the National Vice President for Internal Affairs. Lauren also served two terms on the AMSA Foundation Board of Directors and created the Rural Health Scholars Program within the AMSA Foundation. She looks forward to advancing AMSA as the premiere professional development organization for medical students.
An alumna of Iowa State University, she graduated with her BS in Zoology and BA in Spanish in 2002. During her undergraduate years, she studied abroad in Spain, served as president of her senior class, and interned at the National 4-H Council and at the National Cancer Institute. She co-directed the Freshman Honors Program, was awarded four consecutive presidential leadership scholarships, and established the Iowa 4-H Day at the Legislature program.
After graduating from Iowa State, Lauren volunteered for AmeriCorps at LifeLong Medical Care, a federally-qualified community health center, in Berkeley, CA. She provided health insurance outreach to low-income children and families, worked as a medical assistant at a free medical clinic and youth homeless shelter, and sewed baby quilts for expectant mothers. She lived and worked in New York City for one year before starting medical school at the University of Iowa in 2004.
During her education at Iowa, Lauren researched infectious diseases in Brazil, was a Robert Graham Center visiting scholar, and rotated overseas at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, and at the Gonja Lutheran Hospital in northeastern Tanzania. She served as an Iowa City Free Medical Clinic volunteer, co-taught a first-year elective called Community Health Outreach, and was elected as president of the Medical Student Section of the American College of Preventive Medicine in 2006. She completed her MPH in health policy at The George Washington University in 2007, interning at Iowa Senator Tom Harkin's Washington, DC, office and at the National Association of Community Health Centers.
As a future family and preventive medicine physician, Lauren plans to practice and teach in a community health center, volunteer internationally, and enter policy and advocacy work. Her research interests include primary care workforce development, rural and migrant health, and health care financing and reform. A native Iowan, she enjoys traveling, photography, writing, quilting, and camping.
Reprinted from www.amsa.org
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