The ACR advocacy team—made up of a diverse group of rheumatologists from trainees to ACR and ARP presidents, along with patients and foundation members—went to Capitol Hill twice last year to advocate for pediatric subspecialty loan repayment. It feels like no small victory to see the Educating Medical Professionals and Optimizing Workforce Efficiency and Readiness (EMPOWER) Act pass the House and its companion legislation pass committee and be placed officially onto the Senate legislative calendar for 2020. But the road ahead is long. Continued advocacy will be important to see this through the Senate vote and passed into law. From there, an appropriations bill will need to be passed by both bodies of Congress and signed by the president to fund the authorized law. This process has already proved politically difficult.
Slow But Possible
My term on the GAC will be bookended by the 2016 and the 2020 elections. Many of my colleagues, friends and family lament this as the most depressingly and alarmingly partisan era in American politics and leadership. But over the past few years, I have found solace in the GAC’s work and the advocacy efforts of the ACR. Despite palpable animosity between political parties in the daily news, small but significant areas of agreement and productivity, however slow, are possible.
Tamar Rubinstein, MD, MS, is a pediatric rheumatologist and an assistant professor in pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore/Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York. She was a recipient of the National Institutes of Health Pediatric Research Loan Repayment Program Award and currently serves on the ACR Government Affairs Committee.
Disclosure
Dr. Rubinstein reports acceptance of an NIH Pediatric Research Loan Repayment Award in 2014–16 and its renewal in 2017–2019.
References
- Rochlin JM, Simon HK. Does fellowship pay: what is the long-term financial impact of subspecialty training in pediatrics? Pediatrics. 2011 Feb;127(2):254-260.
- National Resident Matching Program, results and data: Specialties matching service 2019 appointment year. National Resident Matching Program, Washington, D.C. 2019.
- National Resident Matching Program, results and data: Specialties matching service 2018 appointment year. National Resident Matching Program, Washington, D.C. 2018.
- American College of Rheumatology. 2015 workforce study of rheumatology specialists in the United States. 2016.
- Goldberg E. ‘I have a Ph.D. in not having money.’ The New York Times. 2019 Nov. 25.
