Background
The Asian Pacific American Medical Student Association (APAMSA) is a national organization of medical students that works to promote awareness of and address concerns over heathcare issues relevant to the Asian and Pacific Islander populations. Traditionally, we have focused our advocacy and service efforts more on domestic issues within the U.S. Yet, we recognize that the topics of health and healthcare present us with universal challenges that affect a global population. Medicine, given its versatility, constantly transforming and evolving nature, and wide applicability, can be a most powerful unifying instrument, transcending political borders, working to bridge health disparities around the world, and connecting person to person, student to teacher, patient to physician. So, this past October 2008, at our 15th National Conference in Philadelphia, we decided to create a new area of focus on international medical work. Our goal is to help APAMSA members explore more international medical learning opportunities.
Visions
This initiative is incredibly exciting because there is potential to do so much good. We are still in the very starting stages, developing our ideas for what we would like this initiative to eventually establish and offer both to our organization’s membership and to those who need medical relief and aid in various parts of the world. Please free feel to contact us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and share any thoughts, suggestions, or references that you feel may be of help in getting us started. We would be very appreciative of your input.
Long-term Visions:
Ultimately, in the future, we hope to set up an international medical mission effort and/or collaborate on project(s) that send medical students and advisors/physicians to overseas sites to accomplish certain sets of goals, for example to set up a local/mobile clinic in regions lacking medical care, to provide care for a particular group of patients in a particular geographic region, or to educate and learn from the local people. Given the majority of our origins, backgrounds, and roots in Asia, we feel that it is appropriate to narrow the focus of this international initiative to Asia for now. As we gain more knowledge and experience, perhaps we can expand this initiative to include other parts of the world too. Our specific visions include:
- Education: of the patients; local healthcare providers (communicating with local hospitals/health organizations); and ourselves/APAMSA members
- Research: learning more about the local region; any existing health disparities, what services and supplies are really most needed at that time; how we can help
- Establish collaboration: with other organizations so we can pool our resources, brainpower, and heart; learn from existing organizations’ experiences, advice
- Efficacy: narrowing the focus (as to what medical topics to look at) so as to make a bigger impact
- what is feasible to do, as students; our knowledge base and skills set
- what the local patients really need
- focus on acute/infectious, treatable or preventable conditions that are prevalent in the place and time (e.g. procedures, screenings that can be done more safely and in a timely manner)
- definitely remain open to other possibilities as we learn more about what the real needs of the people and place(s) are; remain flexible and adapt to changing conditions
- Sustainability: long term considerations (we don’t want to just go to overseas site once and never go back); perhaps turn project into international medical rotation elective for 3rd/4th year students
We feel that the five specific visions delineated above are also all interrelated. Working towards one of the visions means that we will be working towards the rest of the visions as well.
Short-term Visions:We would like to create a network, compile of list of existing organizations or groups and their associated medical missions (relevant to Asia, perhaps sorted by country, make this list available on our website) to provide to our members as a resource so that they can learn about these opportunities to do international medical work.
We want to reach out to these potential collaborators and have them agree to become APAMSA’s established collaborators on this international initiative (perhaps enter formal agreements with them based on mutual benefit). The goal is to be able to have some of our members go along with their medical teams on missions overseas.
An additional goal, once we have a few established collaborations, is to perhaps collect medical supplies/books/other needed educational or medical paraphernalia that we could send overseas on the medical missions along with our students. There is potential for collaboration with student groups like REMEDY and AMSA here (they already have set up ways to collect medical supplies).
