ACP keynote speaker on advocacy: 'This is the way'

Key takeaways:

• The keynote speaker at the ACP Internal Medicine Meeting encouraged attendees to use their voice to facilitate change.
• Internal medicine physicians must be ready to embrace advocacy opportunities.

SAN DIEGO — “Advocacy is just needed to persist in life,” Vineet Arora, MD, MAPP, MACP, said in her keynote address at the 2023 ACP Internal Medicine Meeting.

Internal medicine doctors are not just doctors for adults, “we are doctors for the world and the world needs us to speak up,” Arora said.

Arora, a Herbert T. Abelson Professor of Medicine and dean for medical education at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, spoke at the opening ceremony of the ACP Internal Medicine meeting.

She shared that early in her career when she was the ACP chair of residents and fellows, she was asked by Renee Butkus of the ACP to testify before Congress.

“In that moment, I learned the power of using your voice and of making change,” Arora said.

She said felt support from some, but others advised her to “be careful; don’t get too political.” Arora challenged the audience to remember that there is little difference in advocacy for the profession, community and society than advocacy for a patient.

In her career, Arora said she has advocated for residency issues, closing the gender pay gap, vaccination, abortion rights, diversity, women in medicine and equity in health care.

“Advocacy is not a part time or side gig. In the words of the Mandalorian, ‘this is the way,’” she said.

Advocacy options will arise, and internists must be ready to embrace them, she said.