UConn School of Medicine students Devin Bageac and Kathryn Topalis are newly elected members of the House of Delegates in the American Medical Association, the largest U.S. physician organization.
Beginning in 2018, Bageac will serve a one-year term as regional delegate with Topalis as an alternate delegate. Only 54 medical students are elected each year to serve as medical student regional delegates and alternate delegates.
As part of the AMA House of Delegates, the 25 percent of students making up the Medical Student Section (MSS) are full voting members and responsible for representing the interests of medical students and their state caucus.
“This is quite an honor and one UConn has not held in recent memory,” said Mary Casey Jacob Ph.D., professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and OB/GYN at UConn School of Medicine and faculty advisor for UConn Heath’s student-based AMA Group led by Topalis and Bageac. “We are so very proud of the students’ new national leadership roles representing UConn and Connecticut, and their steadfast efforts to bring attention to important healthcare policy changes.”
“As regional delegate, I’m excited to represent the University of Connecticut as I vote on behalf of medical students within the AMA House of Delegates,” said Bageac, a second-year medical student. “Through close collaboration with medical societies in our state and New England more broadly, I hope to encourage more medical students to get involved in shaping the future of our healthcare system through organized medicine.”
“I entered medical school with the intent to pursue public health initiatives, and my experience with the AMA has been incredibly rewarding in this regard,” said Topalis, also a second-year medical student. “On a daily basis, members of our chapter have the opportunity to influence federal health policy, and to address current issues impacting patient health. These new roles will allow us to continue to promote the ambitions of Connecticut physicians on a national stage.”
UConn’s AMA Policy Group empowers UConn medical students to affect federal health policy through the AMA. In the past year, the AMA has voted to adopt five different resolutions authored by UConn’s students, many of whom serve in national leadership positions within the AMA’s Medical Student Section.
In addition to their new national AMA roles, Bageac and Topalis have been working to build synergies and collaborations amongst UConn’s AMA group and those at nearby Yale and Quinnipiac Universities.
