The ASCO Delegation to the American Medical Association Discusses Policy Priorities and Process

Disclaimer The purpose of this podcast is to educate and to inform. This is not a substitute for professional medical care and is not intended for use in the diagnosis or treatment of individual conditions. Guests on this podcast express their own opinions, experience, and conclusions. The mention of any product, service, organization, activity, or therapy should not be construed as an ASCO endorsement.

Dr. Clifford A. Hudis Welcome to this ASCO in Action podcast. This is ASCO's monthly podcast series where we explore policy and practice issues that impact oncologists, the entire cancer care delivery team, and most importantly, of course, the individuals we take care of, people with cancer. My name is Clifford Hudis, and I am the CEO of ASCO as well as the host of the ASCO in Action podcast series. For today's podcast, I am really pleased to have as my guests - and you heard that right, plural - Doctor Ed Balaban, one of ASCO's delegates to the American Medication Association House of Delegates and Doctor Kristina Novick, an alternate delegate to the AMA House of Delegates. Both Dr. Balaban and Dr. Novick recently represented ASCO at the AMA House of Delegates meeting where they advocated for cancer policy priorities. During our conversation today, we'll get an update on the AMA meeting, we'll hear more about some of the key issues that we discuss, and then we'll spend some time talking more broadly about ASCO's role at the AMA. Dr. Balaban and Dr. Novak, welcome, and thank you for joining me today. Now, let's start with a general overview of the AMA House of Delegates, what this governance body is and why, as a medical specialty society, ASCO should care about its activities. Dr. Balaban, you have served for many years as an ASCO delegate to the AMA House of Delegates, and I want to take this opportunity first to thank you for that service. But second, I want to ask you what exactly is the role of the House of Delegates? And how does it influence what the AMA actually does? Dr. Edward Balaban So Dr. Hudis, thank you very much for inviting both Dr. Novak and myself to speak for a moment about this because it is something that I don't think that the general membership really understands or appreciates. So the AMA House of Delegates, it's an amazing collection. It's also known as the House or the HOD, and it turns out to be the principal policy-making body of the AMA. It is in a democratic forum that represents views and interests of a number of member physicians and, in fact, represents close to 170 or so societies. We meet twice a year, and the whole idea of meeting is to eventually establish policy in medical, professional, and governance matters that have to do with the AMA business activities and principles of the AMA. Dr. Clifford A. Hudis And how many members are there? And exactly how are the members selected? Dr. Edward Balaban So the delegates right now-- and I say right now because it does change based on the number of AMA members within each representative society. But right now, the delegates number around 620, I believe. ASCO, right now, we have six delegates. Three of them are full delegates and three are alternate delegates. Dr. Clifford A. Hudis All right. So ASCO has three delegates who are appointed plus three alternate delegates. Is that right? Dr. Edward Balaban That's right. The full delegates are voting delegates. And we'll get into the details of that, I'm sure. Dr. Clifford A. Hudis So what actually happens? You have 620 delegates get together. I assume you're in a big ballroom at a hotel in Chicago. And what exactly goes on in that meeting room? Dr. Edward Balaban So, again, we meet twice a year. We meet shortly after the ASCO annual meeting in June and spend a fair amount of time in Chicago then. And then we meet once again in November at another site. The meeting itself, each time, lasts maybe three or four days but the preparation for the meeting goes on for months. And in fact, Dr.