CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE kids. And so I think that was probably my most formative family connection. My dad, on the other hand, who followed in my grandfather’s footsteps into oral surgery never got into any activist activities. When I asked my dad about it later in his life he said, “You know my dad was out every evening, and I swore I would be home with my kids.” So the balance I’ve had to learn to achieve in my life is how to be home with my kids and be a social activist. You’d have to ask my boys but I think I’m doing a pretty good job at both. Can you tell me more about your advocacy work and what it was like to be elected by the Obama Administration to take part in really meaningful conversation about health care? I am an appointed representative for vulnerable populations to the Health Information Technology Policy Committee. My role is to think about what the needs are for populations of people who might otherwise get left out of the technology revolution and who now need special attention to ensure they can avail themselves of all the improvements in care that are going to come from electronic health records and health information exchange. Working inside government is not a huge advocacy opportunity because everything is so structured, the agendas are set and the topics for your meetings are set ahead of time. But the recognition that the appointment to the policy committee brought me has created lots of other opportunities for me to advocate for issues of social justice and equity in health care.
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What are some examples of advocacy opportunities and what can medical students do to be advocates? One of the most important things that happened to me is when I was at Rutgers I connected with a few other students who were very much social
activists. They actually had a lot we were bringing from the student more experience in a broader range group. of activist activities than I did so I We put on a program that talked learned a lot from them. about the influence of the pharmaWe formed a study group and read ceutical industry on how doctors articles that we discussed together make decisions. Remember this was which looked at medicine in a the early 1970’s and nobody was talkbroader social context. We would ing about that stuff. In those days read in the literature about the health you couldn’t walk 5 feet in the hospicare system and tal without being talk about what accosted by drug was going on and reps. what type of We also develchange was oped a program needed to make that looked at sure that poor how the hospitals people got access we were training to all the health in were delivering care they needed. different types of — NEIL CALMAN, MD, care to different So I started to work for the stuCEO OF THE INSTITUTE classes of people. dent-run clinic We developed a FOR FAMILY HEALTH called the “Nabe” program when a which was short researcher who for Neighborhood House. It was run had done a lot of unethical research by a pediatrician. That experience, on developmentally disabled children being in the basement of a church was scheduled to be brought to the once a week and seeing children and hospital to speak at Grand Rounds. families who had been shut out of We actually preempted the Grand the rest of the health care system, Rounds a month beforehand by putwas incredible to me. ting on a program about human exActually, looking back on it, it perimentation and using the unethihelped me formulate my goal of cal researcher as an example of what wanting to be in primary care, on the not to do. He ended up canceling his front lines of health care delivery. trip to Chicago having gotten the But the connection with these other news that we outted him before he students was the most important was able to come and speak. thing. Two of us went and finished All of those things were ways to our medical school at Rush together. raise the consciousness of the people At Rush we developed a much, were working with without being much larger group of advocate studisruptive. More importantly, it dents — probably twenty or thirty. helped us sustain those values we We called ourselves, “Concerned brought to medical school during an Rush Students.” Not exactly a brileducational process that can be very liant name, but we used to put on dehumanizing. programs for the hospital to give a More importantly things were different spin on the things everyone happening during medical school was experiencing. that were horrific and I started writWe formed a very close collaboraing about them. Some of those essays tion with a few faculty members who have been published. But it was really appreciated and supported really difficult to confront some of what we were doing. But also with the ethical and moral questions that the hospital clergy who just concome up when you’re in medical nected with the message of social school observing what goes on in the CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE justice and equity in health care that
You can’t just sit around and be part of a system that doesn’t do the right thing.