WELCOME GEORGIA MEDICAL STUDENTS
Medical Association of Georgia (MAG) & American Medical Association (AMA)
At MAG and AMA for Georgia Medical Students this site is to help bring together all the medical students across Georgia who want to learn about health policy and patient advocacy. MAG and AMA believe in creating healthcare leaders for tomorrow and it all starts with advocacy, for ourselves and our patients. This website is created to help medical students in Georgia understand the mission of MAG and AMA and help start their own chapters at their school. This site was created in May 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, as a central hub for Georgia medical students to find guidance, contact information and resources for your MAG and AMA chapters.
HOW DID THIS ALL START...
I was a first year medical student, like everyone else in the fall of 2017, presenting my research poster at the House of Delegates MAG conference in Savannah, Georgia. I didn't know much about health policy, but was grateful for Mercer's mentorship program to match me with one of the Delegates who was an Internists and alumni of Mercer School of medicine. Since that day, I've been coming back to MAG conferences every year, networking with physicians and learning about health policy and the meaning of advocacy for physicians and our patients.
The following Fall of 2018, Dr. William S. Clark, the AMA delegate to MAG and a great AMA and MAG mentor, came to MAG's Medical Student Section (MSS) meeting and explained the urgent need for Georgia medical students to get involved with health policy and advocacy. There were no Georiga medical students attending the AMA conferences at the time and he encouraged to gather students all across Georgia to join him and have a "seat at the table," a place where change happens.
In light of bringing medical students together to not only be involved at the state, but also the national level at AMA, a new position was created on the MSS Executive Committee: AMA Affiliated Organization Liasion.
Since the Fall of 2018, I've met with many mentors who have helped me start a chapter at my school, Mercer University School of Medicine and eventually begin to help other students start a chapter at their own school as well.
The AMA Medical Student Section president, Region 4 leaders, and AMA medical students across the southeast have been so kind and helpful in welcoming me to start a chapter at my school. Through the countless phone calls, emails, facebook messaging and in-person meetings, I have gathered many contacts, resources and advice over the past two years during my role as the AMA AOL for MAG and AMA president at Mercer to share with other medical students starting the same journey.
“Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do”