APA Members Raise Psychiatry’s Voice at AMA

Carolyn B. Robinowitz, M.D., former APA deputy medical director and long-time participant in the American Medical Association’s House of Delegates, was elected to a four-year term on one of the AMA’s most influential policymaking bodies, the Council on Scientific Affairs (CSA).

Robinowitz’s election to the CSA is likely to provide psychiatry and APA with important benefits, according to Joseph T. English, M.D., senior APA delegate to the AMA and chair of the Section Council on Psychiatry. (The Section Council consists of delegates and alternate delegates appointed by APA and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry [AACAP]).

With her election to the CSA, Robinowitz joins a growing list of psychiatrists who serve in various positions within the AMA’s councils and components (see box), lending crucial input to the AMA from the psychiatric perspective.

“Science-based issues of concern to our profession and our patients now will have a formal voice on this important council,” English told Psychiatric News. “In addition, lines of communication from the council to both APA and AACAP and their respective components, such as APA’s Council on Research, will undoubtedly be strengthened.”

Several other members of the APA delegation to the AMA were asked to serve in special roles during the House of Delegates annual meeting, held last month in Chicago. Patrice Harris, M.D., APA alternate delegate to the AMA and member of APA’s Board of Trustees, and APA delegate K. Lynne Moritz, M.D., each served on reference committees evaluating policy proposals for the house. Catherine Moore, M.D., an APA alternate delegate, served as an assistant teller for the house elections.

Two additional psychiatrists were candidates for elected office within the house, but were unsuccessful in their quest, Carolyn M. Drazinic, M.D., Ph.D., and W. Douglas Skelton, M.D.

Drazinic is a PGY-3 psychiatry resident at Yale University, was nominated by the AMA’s Resident and Fellow Section and endorsed by both APA and AACAP. She received significant support from the Section Council on Psychiatry, as well as the Connecticut State Medical Society and its president, former APA Assembly speaker Al Herzog, M.D. Skelton, the retiring dean of medicine at Mercer University, was nominated by APA, AACAP, and the Medical School Section of the AMA for a seat on the Council on Medical Education. Skelton had previously served two terms on the CSA and later served on the Medical School Section as a governing-council member and then chair.

The Section Council on Psychiatry has already begun planning for next year’s AMA elections. Jo Ellyn Ryall, M.D., chair of APA’s Constitution and Bylaws Committee, has announced her intention to seek re-election to the AMA’s Council on Constitution & Bylaws. Stuart Gitlow, M.D., M.P.H., a psychiatrist and AMA delegate from the American Society of Addiction Medicine, has announced his candidacy for the Young Physician seat on the AMA Board of Trustees.

In addition, Arthur Traugott, M.D., a consulting member to APA’s Council on Healthcare Systems and Financing and a member of the AMA’s Council on Medical Services, is expected to announce his candidacy for the AMA’s Board of Trustees.

Coverage of additional AMA actions will appear in the next issue of Psychiatric News. ▪