A Voice for EM

Each year, while those of us who attend LAC get to tell our anecdotes, we also understand that we are representing emergency physicians across the country and telling your stories too. Although a few hundred of us can do that, there is nothing more powerful than bringing more voices to the Hill. The future of COVID-19 is still unwritten, but we certainly hope that by 2022 we can all be together again, in person, and on Capitol Hill advocating for our fellow physicians, our patients, and our specialty.

So please come next year to LAC and add your voice! In the meantime, join the 911 Grassroots Network at www.acep.org/911grassrootsnetwork to stay informed on federal and state issues. You can also support ACEP by contributing to NEMPAC, the National Emergency Medicine Political Action Committee, and help ACEP amplify your voice on the issues that matter most to emergency medicine.

LAC: A First-Timer’s Perspective

by Lindsey A. Williams, MD

As emergency physicians, we have spent nearly the last two years caring for patients with a novel disease, worrying about personal protective equipment, and wondering when we will be able to safely hug our loved ones again. 

Now we wade into a quagmire where masks and vaccines have been politicized. Health care has always intersected with politics, but we are at a rare time when it is a daily headline. Consequently, I found a reignited sense of duty to encourage better behaviors from myself, my patients, and my elected officials. As physicians, we have a responsibility to practice beyond the walls of the hospital—and our communities depend on it.* One step I took on this path was attending LAC21 in Washington, D.C. 

LAC allowed me to dive into various topics with a group that shares this same sense of duty. Being surrounded by people who believe we can and must do better was invigorating. The EMRA and ACEP YPS Health Policy Primer allowed young physicians and those new to health policy, like me, to gather an understanding of current issues. Primer speakers included both young and seasoned physicians who shared stories of working within an ever-changing system. Hearing these stories was invaluable and further confirmed that, despite the obstacles, I am here to fight the good fight. LAC reminded me of an important truth: I am not alone in this fight.

*Editor’s note: “Medicine as a social science, as the science of human beings, has the obligation to point out problems and to attempt their theoretical solution.”—Rudolph Virchow. From J Epidemiol Community Health. 2006;60(8):671.