Dear colleagues and friends!

Another year has passed and as a President of the Association I am proud to present to you R-AMA’s 2nd Annual Report. It encompasses work done by many people and on behalf of the Association I am grateful for all their tireless effort and sacrifice.

The most important event of the year was the 1st National Conference of R-AMA that took place at the Lake West Hospital in Cleveland, OH. More than 50 people from 8 states of the USA and Canada came to this inaugural meeting. The main purpose of this Conference was the establishment of R-AMA’s official status and the declaration of its goals, election of the governing body and discussion of main issues troubling American medicine presently as well as a several current clinical issues.

The first Board of Directors of R-AMA was elected, as well as the President and the Vice-president of the Association.

R-AMA Board of Directors:
- Dr. Natalia Gorecki, radiologist from Hershey, PA was elected Secretary/Treasurer of the Association.
- Dr. Dmitry Arbuck, psychiatrist from Indianapolis, IN was elected member of the Board of the Association.
- Dr. Michael Anikeev, psychiatrist from Marshall, WI - was elected Chairman of the Education Committee of the Association.
- Dr. Elena Hudson from Houston, TX was elected Chairman of the Health Care Professionals Committee of the Association.
- Ivan Bespalov, PhD, molecular biologist from Tuxedo Park, NY was elected Chairman of the Research Committee of the Association.
- Dr. Ivan Alpatov, general surgeon from Voronezh, Russia was elected Chairman of the Informatics Committee of the Association.
- Dr. Julia Frantsuzov, pediatrician from Cleveland, OH was elected Chairman of the Membership and By-laws Committee of the Association.
- Dr. Gregory Chernyak anethtesiologist from Cincinnati, OH was elected Chairman of theMedical Missions Committee.
- Dr. George Muenster, surgeon from Cleveland, OH was elected Vice-president of R-AMA.

For the first time we learned how to work together with sponsoring companies, hospital administration, media and other entities and how to organize a successful conference.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who participated in organization of this Conference and especially doctors Natalia Eidlin, Julia Frantsuzov, Vladimir Burdjalov, Izold Malament and George Muenster. I would like to specifically mention the name of Ivan Alpatov, MD who single-handedly built the web site for the Association. It would be hard to find a more dedicated person, and The Most Valuable Person Award for the 2003 goes to him.

The 2nd National Conference of the Association is scheduled for September of 2004 in Boston, MA.

Statistics:
Thirty three people joined R-AMA in 2003 and at the moment Association has 81 active members from 20 states of the Nation and from 3 other countries – Russia, Canada and South Africa. The majority of members of the Association are physicians – 48 (26 practicing and 22 in residency training programs), 1 dentist, 12 researchers, 14 students, 5 nurses and medical professionals in other fields and 1 businessman. Majority of physician-members are surgeons – 17, 10 – Internal Medicine and Family Practice, 5 pediatricians, 4 psychiatrists, 3 – obstetricians and 8 from other fields of medicine.

Goals:
Main goals of R-AMA remain the same:
- Education and Academic Excellence
- Humanitarian work
- Networking
- Representation

When we first formed the Association, our original goal was to help people who just came to this country and are trying to get through the hurdles of the examinations and licensing, but it is clear now that the goals of the Association are much wider and more numerous.

Clinical education is an extremely important part of life for every medical professional and we plan to promote and support this education. Supporting basic and clinical research and helping members to obtain grants for that research is one of the ways to advance the interests of R-AMA.

We will create R-AMA Medical Students and Residents Section. Helping Russian students to get a chance to study in the United States and helping American students to do the same in Russia by providing connections and information is one of our goals.

Helping to train Russian doctors, organizing medical and educational missions to Russia is one of projects we are working on. Scientific and clinical seminars, hands-on training in Russia and observership for Russian doctors in the United States will be organized. Donations of medications, medical supplies and equipment have been done already and will continue.

Helping Russian patients in America is another goal. It will work both ways – we help them to find Russian-speaking physicians in different states and we will help each other to expand our referral base. The web site of the Association allows us to create a database of doctors categorized by location and specialty that will be accessible and searchable. Helping Russian patients in Russia may be even more important and we will try to do this work.

To accomplish all of this we will establish R-AMA Charitable Foundation. It will raise funds for a physician fellowship program that will bring research and clinical fellows from Russia to the US, as well as raise funds and establish scholarship funds for Russian American Medical Students.

R-AMA will be working to support its members at all levels of American medical community through participation in local and national medical organizations. We are already invited to membership in most of the 55 ethnic medical associations currently functioning in the United States. After we fulfill the requirements set by American Medical Association, R-AMA will be eligible to send its representative to the AMA House of Delegates.

We will continue to develop broad network of Russian-speaking medical professionals. The importance of those connections between colleagues is hard to underestimate.

The Association started to develop partnership with many professional and charitable organizations nationwide.

First R-AMA partners:
Greater Cleveland-Volgograd Oblast Alliance
The Congress of Russian Americans
Foreign Consultants, Inc.
Friends of Russian Orphans
International College of Surgeons
Lake County (Ohio) Medical Society
LOREO - Local Russian Emigre Organization
Meridian Health Group
Russian American Medical Partners
Russian Media, Inc.
The Ukrainian Medical Association of North America
Russian Surginet

Finances
Our finances come from three main sources: sponsoring drug companies and medical equipment manufacturing companies, membership fees and fees from present and future Association conferences and other activities. More than 10 major pharmaceutical companies support R-AMA. A financial report will be presented to members at the each annual Conference.

Again, I would like to underline the fact that our Association is not a political organization. We participate in legislative and political process but we DO NOT endorse or support any particular party, group, or political opinion.

I hope that each one of us will find his place in the Association. R-AMA’s life is a work in progress – if we will see an important and interesting project we will work on it. Each one of us has personal goals, and Association aims at helping people to realize them. When we will, we would consider our grand task accomplished.

Thank you very much for your help and “Long live R-AMA!”

Boris Vinogradsky, MD
President of R-AMA

General Surgery
Cleveland, OH