NPA, AMSA, GLMA, oh my!

I am now* wrapping up my 4 days in Houston for National Physicians Alliance (NPA) conference. I would love to talk about explorations of Houston, TX and the fabulous meals I had at its famously awesome restaurants. However, essentially every day from 8 AM (6 AM Tacoma time) until 9 PM was committed to sessions, organizing, meetings. The weekend was exhausting, but productive and invigorating... and exactly what I needed!

It's great to spend time with other docs who think like me, who care about change, policy, patients, diversity, integrity, moral responsibility, wellness. Here at NPA there is no talk about how we can maximize our practices to make more money, it's all about how we can further social justice, try to stay pharm free (battle drug reps), fight data mining, advocate for the underserved, struggle for a health care system that is actually about health care, not sick care (to use Dr. M. Joycelyn Elders, the former Surgeon General's, words from her keynote address on Sunday).

These are my people.

Thankfully, NPA and AMSA had enough overlap that I could see my old chums from LGBTPM/HAC, Global Health and AMSA National. I also got to reconnect with GLMA as their Executive Director was also here this weekend. I missed the GLMA National Conference as it coincided with an inpatient rotation and was way off in Puerto Rico. Next year it is fabulously in Seattle so I will certainly make every human effort to attend as much of it as possible.

Hey - and look at all those links up there! I bet you are itching to just check them out... :)

*disclaimer: Melikagirl seems to post my blog sometime in the future. Proving that on the Internet, time is not a continuum. So "now" may not be an acurate description