Medical Student

Junior Medical Student

The goal of your first and second year of medical school is to focus on your training in becoming the very best physician you can be. Remember, you can't be a Health Policy Emergency Medicine (EM) fellow if you are unable to match into EM. There are several opportunities to become acquainted with health policy while in the first and second year. These opportunities include attending the American Medical Association's (AMA) National Advocacy Conference or the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) Leadership and Advocacy Conference. If you're an osteopathic medical student, consider attending the American Osteopathic Association's (AOA) DO Day or applying to Omega Beta Iota, the national osteopathic political action honor society. In addition to these opportunities, you can attend your State Medical Society's Advocacy Day as well.

Senior Medical Student

In addition to the events mentioned above, you may want to consider taking on additional leadership roles, applying for health policy electives, and increasing your involvement in national organizations. Explore the websites of your local medical school or affiliated hospital system for opportunities in scholarships, electives, and programs.

As a senior medical student, you should look for additional responsibility roles for health policy events such as a Team Lead on an advocacy topic. This provides you an opportunity to mentor junior students in health policy, but also ensure that a topic is advocated appropriately to your legislator. Furthermore, you should consider becoming involved with the American Academy of Emergency Medicine Resident and Student Association's (AAEM RSA) Advocacy Committee and the Emergency Medicine Residents' Association's (EMRA) Health Policy Committee on projects that seek to affect positive change for EM residents and interested medical students. Additionally, you can apply for the EMRA Health Policy Academy to receive formal training on resolution writing and advocacy, or apply for an EMRA or AAEM RSA Health Policy elective in Washington, D.C. For osteopathic medical students, there are opportunities to apply to the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine (AACOM) Osteopathic Health Policy Internship and for induction into the Omega Beta Iota Honor Society.

A Word About Residency

If you are considering a career in health policy or health policy fellowship, it may be helpful to seek out programs that offer health policy fellowships as this provides an easier opportunity for mentorship and to have access to fellows in the field. That being said, many emergency physicians are involved in health policy at some level, as such you may want to make this a question on the interview trail and to demonstrate this interest to your interviewer.