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Leadership Forum
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Chair's Address
Genome-based Medicine: Hope, Hype, and Reality
Robert J. Desnick, M.D., Ph.D.
Chairman, Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences,
Mt. Sinai School of Medicine
AAMC Chair Robert J. Desnick, Ph.D., M.D., provided a detailed account of the "hope, hype, and reality" surrounding genome-based medicine. The field, Desnick said, is a promising although yet not realized tool for treating a range of diseases. Genomic sciences, he said, may help identify people "who will benefit or have toxicity from certain drugs."
Desnick said our nation's academic medical institutions should make genomics a larger part of their curricula.
"We need to teach it, we need to be comfortable with it," he said. Tomorrow's doctors must be able to advise their patients, who may have learned about this field from the Internet and other mainstream media sources.
Desnick called for today's medical educators to "get our trainees to do really good family histories," because many disease-causing genetic variants are often inherited. Estimating disease risk from family histories, Desnick said, is critical.
Presentation (PDF, 56 pages)
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AAMC President's Address
The Tough Questions
Darrell G. Kirch, M.D.
AAMC President and CEO
AAMC President and CEO Darrell G. Kirch, M.D., challenged the leaders of the nation's medical schools and teaching hospitals to bring change to academic medicine by confronting several "tough questions" related to medical education, patient care, and research.
Kirch called on the academic medicine community to tackle financial conflicts in medical research and education; address the disparity of resources among AAMC member institutions and economic inequalities among medical specialties; find a balance between the missions of education, research, and patient care; achieve flexibility and responsiveness in medical education; and improve health care safety and quality.
Speaking to this last challenge, Kirch said that the academic medical community must "look at the world through the eyes of our patients."
Kirch concluded by challenging whether medical schools and teaching hospitals were ready to pave the way for change in this country. "Are we prepared to go first, to make some personal and institutional sacrifices?" he asked of the 3,000 meeting attendees.
Watch the Webcast
Read Dr. Kirch's remarks (PDF, 6 pages)
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Keynote Address
Insight Spanning the Decades
Ted Koppel
Discovery Channel managing editor and National Public Radio senior news analyst
In his keynote address, veteran television and radio journalist Ted Koppel told 2008 AAMC Annual Meeting attendees that our nation and the world at large are facing serious challenges.
"I cannot remember a more dangerous time than what we find ourselves in today," Koppel said. An enormous national debt, international political instability, and an unsustainable energy supply are three areas of major concern, Koppel said. To bring about change, Koppel suggested that Americans will have to relinquish their "perceived entitlements."
"Our children and grandchildren will inherit our debt," Koppel said. "We are going to have to cut our expenses."
Koppel said he looked forward to a "new and historic" political era that could address the problems plaguing our nation with newfound momentum. He also discussed difficulties in his own industry of journalism. In an effort to attract an audience and turn a profit, media outlets have become too partisan, he said. It is important that people can have "an independent press corps" that can deliver accurate and unbiased news.
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