Saba AMSA Update

[spaslam]

As always, Saba AMSA continues to work with our SGA, Women's Association and school administration to make our medical education better and provide community service on the island.

We are reviewing a number of grants applications for projects on the island, such as alcohol education, skin cancer awareness and hopefully expansion of our successful programs in sex education and medical technology education. If you have ideas for other grants or want to get involved, please email Jason or I.

We also have Student Health and Wellbeing Facilitators Dana and Christy who present good habits for healthy living on Saba and dealing with stress. Please let us know if you have any interest or ideas for working with them, such as forming a student yoga/meditation group.


Soon we will have a Primary Care Coordinator to coordinate National Primary Care Week. Developing primary care medicine is a great way to lower costs and serve patients better in the USA. Proper primary care can save patients from many unnecessary tests and procedures, and help with prevention.AMSA will have a table at new student orientation next Monday for those interested. Jason and I will be looking for people interested in getting involved in projects around the island or on campus.

Upcoming conferences

APHA/PNHP conferences are coming up in November in New Orleans, La. The American Public Health Association really gets its student members involved. APHA has been influencing policies and setting priorities in public health for over 125 years. Throughout its history it has been in the forefront of numerous efforts to prevent disease and promote health. Please consider attending the conference Nov. 5-9th, 2005:


http://www.apha.org/meetings/


Physicians For a National Healthcare Program works closely with APHA and has it's meeting in the same place as APHA:

http://www.pnhp.org/about/annual_meetings.php

Both groups have discounts for med students. If there is interest in attending, we should contact the admin, SGA and other groups to see if we can get funding to send a student. Let us know if you are interested.

AMSA's 56th Annual Convention is March 29-April 2, 2006 in Chicago. A great chance to make contacts, learn about what other medical students are doing, check out or present research, etc.

Don’t forget: community service is a great way to build your resume for the Saba SGA Scholarship and looks great when applying for residencies.

If you haven’t joined AMSA yet, or simply want more info, please go to:

http://www.amsa.org/member/mbrapp.cfm (http://www.amsa.org/member/mbrapp.cfm)


Jason Rolfe and Sunny Aslam
Saba AMSA
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/Saba-AMSA/ (http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/Saba-AMSA/)

[ducman]

Jason/Sunny,

Thanks for the info. Do you have any resources for obtaining grants which we can utilize to conduct research on the rock? See you next week.

Thanks,

[wolfvgang22]

Wouldn't students who attend these events miss significant class time? How is that handled? Is it worth it to join AMSA on Saba, and if so, why? I'm curious. Thanks

[spaslam]

Hey y'all:

Joining AMSA has been great for me--but it's probably not for everyone.

AMSA gives out grants--feel free to see Jason and I about whatever you want to work on. Othewise, you can most likely get money for research by working on a Hyperbaric Medicine project through Dr. Stewart. He is very approachable. Other professors also have projects--my wife and I and others have worked with other professors on projects--as well as with other medical students and doctors off the island. Dr. Radix does a lot of great infectious disease work, particularly in AIDS. In summary, many options so seek us or Dr. Stewart out--he is the research director for the school. The school has been quite generous for us to present research in 3 countries at various conferences.

I did miss some time of school, but if you plan it right and are a strong student it's not a big deal. Talk to your profs--they usually understand and encourage that type of educational enrichment.

Finally, I joined AMSA because it has some benefits--publications, discounts on equipment, books that are not on the island. They also work on issues like resident work hours, promoting health care for all, malpractice issues, eliminating disparities in medicine, women and minorities in healthcare, etc.

The biggest reason why I joined was a way to organize our community service projects on the island and gain access to some funds for our projects. The projects include a number of health education for the local children, in concert with SGA, Women's Association, etc. Our other projects are technology in medicine for the medical students. We worked on using handheld devices and building web sites for physicians.

My final point is: you do not have to join AMSA to participate in any of our activities. Please come and work with us to teach the local kids and to make our medical school even better than it already is. Saba does a great job of prepping you for USMLE and 3-4th year. The rest is up to us.

Best,
Sunny