Please see below the latest updates on the AAMA activities for the past couple of weeks:
- Come and join us at the AAMA social gathering and membership drive to take place this coming Friday September 10 at Waltham Craft Food Hall from 6-9pm. Please see attached flyer for more details. RSVP by 9/7/2021. The cost is $30 per person and will include passed food and soft drinks. All AAMA members, friends, and significant others are invited. People interested in becoming AAMA members are also very welcome. The event will be mostly a social get-together with some brief highlights of the AAMA current and future plans to be presented by the board.
- The AAMA is exploring potential collaborations with Children of Armenia Fund (COAF) which has a significant presence in different Marzes in rural Armenia. Two areas of common interest include: (a) possibilities of sending US med students and residents to the COAF-run health clinics and medical centers for 3-4 weeks elective rotations; (b) AAMA specialty and subspecialty support for the COAF primary care providers by telehealth.
- The medical student consortium team will meet next week to deliberate on strategies to collaborate with medical student and postgraduate training and education both in Armenia and New England. We are considering journal club and case presentation zoom webinars for medical students and residents from Armenia to benefit from. We are also exploring opportunities with the various medical schools in Armenia and the NIH.
- The AAMA is also engaged in meetings with Tufenkian foundation representatives in Armenia and others including Carolann Najarian and Anush Sahakian with the goal of providing assistance to the limited availability of health care in Artsakh and its many villages. We have identified an Armenian primary care physician from the U.S. who is very interested in leading a long-term mission work to Artsakh. We will be reaching out to the Artsakh MOH to formalize this project soon.
- The Aurora grant application with AAMA and the Traveling Doctors (Armine Barkhudarian) has been submitted for review. This is another project worth $40,000 (AAMA portion=10K) for villages in Artsakh that will offer preventive and primary care in women’s health. We are hopeful it will be funded.
- Separately, the AAMA board has approved the establishment of 2 AAMA grants (first prize: 10K and second prize: 5K). This will be open to all individuals, organizations, and non-profits doing health care work in Armenia or Artsakh.
- Nursing sub-committee: The AAMA currently includes about 12 nurses, nurse practitioners, nursing students and nurse professors. Several nurses have come forward and expressed interest in regrouping to form a subcommittee to explore various nurse-led projects that would benefit both Armenia / Artsakh as well as the New England communities we serve.
- The 100 oxygen concentrators (and transformers) that the AAMA facilitated in shipping to Armenia have been received by the Association of Healthcare and Assistance to Older People (AHAOP), an Armenian NGO focusing on geriatric care.
- Along the same line, AHAOP is holding a symposium in Armenia end of September on geriatric care, and our own Armen Arslanian, past AAMA president will be a key symposium participant.
- Please visit our website at www.aamaboston.org and enjoy all the upgrades and new features that we have incorporated. For new or current members, we ask that you pay your dues through the website electronically ($150 for licensed practitioners, $75 for residents and fellows, free for all students). Remember that the AAMA is a non-profit organization. All your donations, including payment of your dues, are tax-deductible. Most of your paid dues go to fund medical student and allied health student scholarships. We are also on FB, Instagram, and Twitter.
- Another important reminder that we (the AAMA) are registered with the Amazon Smile program. Every time you purchase an item from Amazon, provided you choose AAMA as your non-profit from the Amazon Smile website, a certain percentage of your purchase gets donated to AAMA. We now have over 218 members / friends on this mailing list. The dollars add up. Please consider making use of this program while shopping on Amazon.
- The 1st Dr. Raffy Hovanessian International Digestive Disease Virtual Conference will take place on September 11-12. This conference is made possible by the International Center for Professional Development (ICPD). AAMA is one of the ICPD donors. Please see link for more details: https://www.icpd.am/conference/23
- If any of you are interested in being more actively involved with any of the AAMA activities above, or should you have an idea / project you would like to undertake, please reach out to me and we will get you more involved and support you as best we can.
With respect
Vatche’
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