AMA Conference - New Orleans

One of the events I was most looking forward to in coming to medical school was attending one of the AMA conferences Ross was telling me about over the time he was involved with AMA-FMA during his first and second years. Ross had always been interested in politics and found the AMA-FMA Medical Student Section to be a way where he could fulfill two of his greatest interest by helping to influence medicine and politics.

I’d have to thank Ross for introducing me to such as notable organization – there are many opportunities for networking and having an impact in medicine! We left for our trip to New Orleans, the setting for this year’s Interim Conference, on Thursday at 3 pm. Before I get into details of how the trip went, perhaps explaining how badly the trip was organized could put things into more perspective.

-          The conference began on Thursday morning/afternoon which contained introductions and important orientation information – we got to New Orleans at 1 am Louisiana time (Mountain time?).

-          FIU is right next to Miami International Airport – For some reason we had our flight booked at Ft. Lauderdale International Airport, costing us more money and time to get back home

-          Our flight had two stops, the first to HOUSTON, TEXAS and then onward to NOLA.

-          They booked our hotel in Baton Rouge, rather than in the same town as the conference like every other school.

o   In addition to this, they expected us to use a taxi every time we needed to travel somewhere.

§  The most unrealistic aspect of the trip by far

§  Logically, we decided as a group to get a rental car instead, this proved to be vital.

All complaints aside, as I said before, we arrived at our hotel in Baton Rouge at 1 am in the morning and had our two hotel rooms. Those who came to the conference were:

-          Myself (Vice Chair)

-          Gabriel Sanchez (Chair)

-          Lynn Zaremski (Secretary)

-          Chris Plecia (AMA Delegate)

-          Tim Lu (Interested Student)

-          David Weithorn (Interested Student)

-          Neeva Bose (Former Chair)

The first day of the conference was exciting although a little boring at the same time. In the morning, I went with Chris to the main ballroom to listen to the different resolutions brought up and presented by difference medical schools all across the country. Chris and I sat at the Florida tables (which by far was the most represented state, thanks to UF and USF bringing over 100 people in total), and upon coincidence I found myself sat next to my old friend, Ross. The meeting was in full swing so we didn’t spend too much time talking; however it was a breath a fresh air for me to see a familiar face. Afterwards, presentations were taking place all over the conference; all of us in our professional attire attended those presentations we felt were the most interesting.

The day, for the most part, was done by 6 pm; from 10:30 am to 1:30 pm we went as a group to get to know New Orleans. The city was