ACEP is up for its five-year review at the American Medical Association. The number of delegates that a specialty society such as ACEP is afforded to represent our specialty at the AMA House of Delegates depends upon the number of ACEP members who are also AMA members. Currently, we enjoy having five delegates and alternates at the HOD.

On Jan. 1, 2014, the AMA will compare our member list with theirs. At our last count five years ago, we had 3,007 ACEP members who also belonged to the AMA.

We get one for the organization and one for each thousand or fraction thereof. Should there be less than 3,000, we lose a delegate and alternate. We are hoping that there will be more than 4,000 to make us eligible for a sixth delegate and alternate. But just to be sure, it is vitally important that more ACEP members join the AMA.

Beyond ensuring our continued strong presence at the HOD, it is imperative that more and preferably all emergency physicians participate in the big House of Medicine – the AMA.

You might not have the time or inclination to actively participate, but your membership dollars are essential to help those of us who do, to help carry the water so to speak.

I started my participation at the AMA though the Organized Medical Staff Section (OMSS) in 1983 and then as an alternate delegate in 1986 and have continued to the present as a delegate.

Becoming the designee from your hospital to the OMSS is the easiest way to start or via active participation in your local medical society, your state medical association and then on the HOD representing your state.

The 168th President of the AMA, Ardis Hoven, was inaugurated at the recently concluded annual session of the AMA HOD in Chicago.

ACEP’s own Dr. Steve Stack, sitting in the Young Physician slotted seat at the Board of Trustees, has just completed his term as chair and announced his candidacy for President of the AMA. We are aiming to help elect him as the 170th and first emergency physician AMA President.

This is big for emergency medicine, and we need your help to make it happen.

We have come a long way since my initial years as the sole delegate. Emergency medicine is now a huge and widely appreciated participant in the House of Medicine

Join the AMA today, and when you do, designate ACEP as the society that will represent you in the House of Delegates. We need your membership, support, and participation.

Our membership in AMA has enjoyed growth for three years running. Help us make our growth and participation stronger and more effective in “promoting the art and science of medicine and the betterment of the public health.”

The current long-range strategic plan of the AMA focuses on three vital strategic areas:

• Improving Health Outcomes: Targeted first are cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes
• Accelerating Change in Medical Education: To this end, the AMA just announced funding an $11 million grant initiative to 11 medical schools in an effort to match the current education and training of our medical students to the environments in which they’ll practice.
• Enhancing Physician Satisfaction and Practice Sustainability: This will create a better health care system for the country. And to do so with the underlying assumption that a better health system will emerge only if the critical providers – the physicians – have a more satisfying and sustainable practice environment.

I submit that emergency physicians can find favor with all three of these objectives. Go to the AMA to join at https://commerce.ama-assn.org/membership/

Dr. Stennes served as ACEP President from 1985 to 1986.