General Meeting Minutes (02/01/09)

Any questions/comments/suggestions or if you want to get involved, email any of the APAMSA officers or dukemed.apamsa@gmail.com.

1. Bone Marrow Lecture and Drive: As part of the nationwide Pledge-It-Forward Campaign, Duke Med APAMSA will organize a bone marrow drive within the following months. For background information on the campaign, see http://www.asianamericansforobama.com/%20the-gift-of-hope-2009-presidential-inaugural-committees-national-day-of-service. For information on what Duke Med APAMSA plans to do and areas in which you can help, read on…
-Organize a lecture on bone marrow transplantation from Duke Heme/Onc physicians prior to the bone marrow drive
-Talk to SNMA about collaborating on the drive
-Date? March or April (will need to talk with SNMA and National Marrow Donor Program)
-Location? TBD
-Publicity? Newspapers, flyers, Asian markets/churches/etc

2. HepB Lecture and future projects: While our main focus this year is the Bone Marrow Drive, we hope to have some activities centered around HBV awareness as well.
-Organize a lecture on HBV in Asian communities
~~For whom: med students? students and residents?
~~By whom: Dr. Fried? Dr. Samuel So?
~~When: during Grand Rounds? depends on speaker’s schedule? Aim for first week of March or April
~~Other logistical concerns: place, time, food, pamphlets, funding (awaiting response from APAMSA HepB grant application)
-Work with UNC on their upcoming project “Project HBV Eradication”
~~Help out with UNC efforts
~~Carry out similar efforts at Duke, most likely during the upcoming school year

3. Cancer info session: Cancer is the leading cause of death for Asian Americans. Led by APAMSA’s National Cancer Co-Director Victoria Kim, we plan on holding an informal information session for med students (targeting the MS1 class first?). Nationally, APAMSA is working on increasing breast cancer screening efforts.

4. APAMSA article: Last semester, we talked about submitting an article on an issue pertinent to the Asian American community (experiences as an overrepresented minority? other topics?). We can submit article(s) to Inside Duke, VOICES, or other newsletters/newspapers. Please let us know if you have ideas and/or would like to help write an article this semester.

5. Other events:
-Organize a mixer (potluck?) with UNC students and other graduate student organizations
-Look into working with newly formed professional Asian organization (talk to Wendy and Yaqing for more info)