Dr. Raj S. Pruthi, Professor and Chair of the UNC Department of Urology, was invited to serve as a representative of the American Urological Association at the Alliance for Specialty Medicine’s Annual Advocacy Conference July 7-9 in Washington, DC. The Alliance is a coalition of national medical societies representing specialty physicians in the United States. This non-partisan group is dedicated to the development of sound federal health care policy.
The focuses of this year’s Conference included discussion of Access to Specialty Care and Increasing Support for Graduate Medical Education to Support the Specialty Workforce, related topics for which Dr. Pruthi has assumed a national leadership role based on his research at UNC. Speakers at the conference included the Senators and Representatives from the US Congress, including several physicians, as well as representatives from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and other relevant organizations. In addition to the policy-relevant discussion in the main meeting, Dr. Pruthi joined a delegation of North Carolina representatives from Alliance member organizations to meet with staff from government agencies responsible for health policy.