Short Course: An Interdisciplinary Workshop on Politics and Strategy in Medical Associations

An Interdisciplinary Workshop on Politics and Strategy in Medical Associations

Sorcha Brophy
Half Day, 1:30 PM-5:30 PM
Omni Shoreham, Council Room

Professional medical associations around the world have historically been a conduit for channeling physician interests into policy. Today, these associations remain powerful national stakeholders despite increasingly crowded policy arenas and threats to their power by populist movements, the privatization and corporatization of healthcare and the fragmentation of organized medicine. The role of these national associations in policy debates has been shaped by global forces such as colonialism, the globalization of biomedicine, macroeconomic shifts, migration, and transnational professional movements. Critical analysis of professional medical associations’ role is necessary to better understand how they continue to impact debates about the future of healthcare and to assess the extent to which their interests and values are translated into nation-state policies.

Research on professional medical associations has emerged from several disciplines, including political science, sociology, anthropology, history, and global health. However, there are few spaces for researchers from diverse backgrounds to have constructive dialogue about the different theories and methods that inform their work. In this workshop, we will bring together a global, interdisciplinary group of scholars to share research, draw comparisons, discuss methods, and consider future directions for research on the politics and strategy of professional medical associations.

This workshop will be divided into three panels. The first two panels will explore thematic concerns around the coordination and strategy of creating health policy in and through medical associations. The third panel will bring together interdisciplinary scholars for a conversation about future methodological directions and collaborations.

For our first two panels, panelists will prepare short 2-page précis that will be circulated to all workshop participants in advance of the conference. The précis will contain a summary of panelists research findings, and pose questions for discussion. During the panels, we will begin with discussion of panelists’ research, directed by the questions posed in the précis. We will then move to a group discussion of the broad themes of the panels, led by the panel chair. In our third panel, the chairs will lead all workshop participants in a brainstorming session to develop methodological insights and determine next steps. In order to help direct discussion, participants will be encouraged to consider a number of questions about their research in advance of the workshop.

The learning objectives of this workshop are threefold:

  1. To enumerate shared themes in research from diverse contexts/discipline
  2. To identify methodological tools and theoretical concepts that can be exported from other disciplines
  3. To formulate an interdisciplinary, globally-oriented research agenda on professional medical associations and policymaking

**All Short Courses will take place on Wednesday, August 28, 2019 at the APSA 2019 Annual Meeting in  Washington, DC.**