A group of Duke Internal Medicine residents traveled to Washington, D.C., last week as part of the Ambulatory Care Leadership Track's focus on advocacy. Throughout the year, the ACLT residents plan and prepare for the trip, where they meet with representatives in Congress. This year the residents prepared a one-page paper on opioid safety with help from Duke University Health and State Government Relations.
Daniella Zipkin, MD, associate professor of medicine (General Internal Medicine) and associate program director for ambulatory care in the Internal Medicine Residency Program, served as faculty advisor for the group.
The residents tied their points on opioid safety to recent bills that were passed but still awaiting appropriations. They discussed priorities about opioid safety during contact with offices of two U.S. Congressmen – Rep. David Price from North Carolina and Rep. Gary Palmer from Alabama.
The group also convened for a breakfast meeting with the Executive Vice President of the Association of American Medical Colleges, Atul Grover, MD, PhD, on the topics of health policy and advocacy.
Afterwards the residents had a special encounter with Victor Dzau, MD, former Chancellor for Health Affairs at Duke University and President and CEO of Duke University Health System and current the President of the National Academy of Medicine. According to a tweet by Dr. Zipkin (aka @EvidenceBasedMD) they enjoyed a conversation about “big ideas in healthcare.”
Finally, the group met with Karen DeSalvo, MD, MPH, MSc, the Acting Assistant Secretary for Health and National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. Dr. DeSalvo shared her story as a general internist.
Alex Cho, MD, MBA, assistant professor of medicine (General Internal Medicine) helped to create the advocacy program and accompanied the group this year. Read about last year's ACLT advocacy trip to the N.C. General Assembly.