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 APAMSA
is the Asian Pacific American Medical Student Association.
We
are a national organization that aims to address those issues
important to Asian-American medical students.
One
part of our mission is to bring together Asians and others
interested in the health issues that affect Asians so that
we may have a strong, collective, public and political voice.
We are interested in both directly promoting the health and
well-being of the Asian community as well as in helping all
health care workers who work with these communities understand
how to care for the Asian patient in a culturally sensitive
manner. Finally, APAMSA provides an important forum for APA
medical students to meet, exchange information and experiences
and develop personally and professionally.
APAMSA's
foundation was laid in 1993 by Asian American students worried
about the present and future of their community and their
role in it. These students began to discuss issues that they
felt were ignored by existing organizations and formed groups
at their local schools to help understand the unique challenges
they faced as Asian Americans in medicine. Largely composed
of students from east coast schools, these chapters also began
to meet with each other in what would lead to the now annual
APAMSA National Conference.
APAMSA
officially started in 1995 with the first National Conference
and has grown in many directions. As you can see on this site,
there are several projects APAMSA is involved with. These
include the Hepatitis B education and immunization project,
the Bone Marrow Donation project, and the AAPI health initiative
letter writing campaign. As our membership and sponsorship
increases, we hope to expand our involvement in related campaigns.
APAMSA
also has strong stances on many issues. Being an organization
based on health care, we have spoken out against smoking and
tobacco use targeting the Asian community, for responsible
alcohol use, for immunization and for health standards addressing
needs of the medically underserved.
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