If you don't speak for Internal Medicine, who will?
ACP's continued success on Capitol Hill greatly depends upon year-round grassroots support from the College's more than 8,000 participants in the Advocates for Internal Medicine Network (formerly known as the “Key Contact Program”). Advocates e-mail, call and meet with their members of Congress on issues of importance to medical students, internists and their patients, and report the results back to ACP.
To enroll as an Advocate, ACP members are not required to have existing relationships with their members of Congress. ACP gives them the tools necessary to develop and maintain relationships. The program is open to all membership categories.
Enroll in the Advocates for Internal Medicine Network
The Legislative Action Center
As key issues approach the decision-making stage on Capitol Hill, the College emails or faxes legislative alerts to Advocates. Legislative alerts include all of the necessary information (including sample messages that can be easily personalized) to make informative contacts with members of Congress, and ACP staff is always available to provide support and answer legislative questions.
Once enrolled as an Advocate you can use the College’s Legislative Action Center (LAC) to respond easily to current ACP legislative alerts, identify your federal legislators, monitor important legislation, and e-mail or call your members of Congress.
Additional Information
Advocates receive a periodic newsletter, The Capitol Key, updating them on important legislative issues.
The College implemented the Richard Neubauer Advocate for Internal Medicine Award to recognize the hard work of members who go above and beyond the call of duty to contact their members of Congress. Each year at Leadership Day, ACP selects a Richard Neubauer Advocate for Internal Medicine Award and the Top Ten Advocates for Internal Medicine Special Recognition Winners based on the quality and quantity of responses to legislative alerts. Information on past recipients can be found in past issues of The Capitol Key.
The College is continually recruiting new Advocates, especially where gaps exist in the program and a key member of Congress is not matched with a sufficient number of Advocates. When joining the program, members are asked to complete a short enrollment form that helps the College identify any special relationships they may have with members of Congress. For more information on the Advocates for Internal Medicine Network, please email grassroots@acponline.org.
Related Links
Public Policy References
ACP Policy Compendium 2011![[PDF]](/graphics/new/pdf.gif){kind=small}
A summary of ACP's public policy positions.
Public Policy Virtual Library
The Public Policy Virtual Library (PPVL) is a repository of ACP's current and historic policies.