About Us
Mission & Vision​
The American Medical Student Association is dedicated to the improvement of medical education, health care, and health care delivery so that health care may become more personal and holistic in a world of increasing technology and efficiency. We define health as a positive, dynamic state of physical, mental and environmental well-being, and therefore, believe that health care should be oriented toward the achievement of health and not solely a treatment of disease. Health maintenance, then, becomes a basic responsibility of all individuals, and health professionals become the colleagues of patients in the management and maintenance of health.
We believe that access to quality health care is a right, not a privilege. This implies equal access to equally high standards of health care regardless of economic status, political beliefs, cultural background, geographic position, race, creed, national origin, age, sex, sexual orientation, physical handicap, mental handicap or institutionalization for criminal, medical or psychiatric reasons. Since resources are limited, they should be allocated so that they equitably promote the public health; thus, health-care issues must be addressed in the public forum.
National History
​
The American Medical Student Association (AMSA) was founded in 1950. For more than 60 years, AMSA has represented the voice of physicians-in-training in their efforts to best serve the public. There are four aspirations that AMSA members focus their activism: advocating for quality, affordable health care for all, global health equality, enriching medicine through diversity, and professional integrity, development and student well-being. AMSA's action committees and interest groups expose students to information on subjects not generally covered in traditional curricula.
AMSA remains a leader in the campaign for resident work hour reform—authoring the Patient and Physician Safety and Protection Act of 2003, introduced by Senator Jon Corzine (S. 952) and Representative John Conyers (H.R.1228).
In 2002, AMSA launched the PharmFree Campaign to educate and train our members to professionally and ethically interact with the pharmaceutical industry. It encourages medical schools and academic medical centers to develop policies that limit the access of pharmaceutical company representatives to their campuses and prohibit medical students and physicians from accepting gifts of any kind from these representatives. In May 2007, AMSA released its first PharmFree Scorecard, which was a first-of-it’s-kind ranking of medical schools according to their pharmaceutical influence policies. The PharmFree momentum continues to build as institutions across the country are announcing policy that limits pharmaceutical representatives from their campuses. Updated versions of the Scorecard were issued in 2008, 2009 and 2010.
AMSA became the U.S. member organization of the International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations (IFMSA) in 2008. The merger put AMSA members at the epicenter of the international medical student community, providing U.S. medical students the opportunity to participate in international exchanges and expand AMSA’s programs throughout the globe.