A note from the IMGS chair
November 2024
From IMGS Chair Tani Malhotra, MD
As we return from the 2024 Interim Meeting in Orlando, Florida, I must reflect on the meeting and why I chose to get involved with the AMA. It was at an Orlando meeting eight years ago that I was elected as a Resident and Fellow Section (RFS) alternate delegate. Having never attended a meeting before, I had no idea what I was signing up for, but it was the most life-altering experience that has shaped the course of my career.
As the landscape of medicine continues to change and burnout amongst physicians is ever increasing, attending AMA meetings is the tincture to burnout for me and several of us who choose to take time off from our busy practices to attend these meetings twice a year. Shaping the policy on which the AMA advocates and litigates helps me regain some of the control that continues to be chipped away as physicians transition to more employed and private equity models.
The meetings allow us to connect with like-minded, action-driven physicians from across the country and across all specialties to learn from each other and build a community around never giving up on the fight to do what is best for the patient and for ourselves.
2024 IMGS Interim Meeting
At this meeting we discussed policy around physicians practicing on J-1 waivers and the anticipated impact of additional licensing models being developed by the Advisory Commission of Alternate Licensing Models. We, IMGs, provided testimony on the importance of sustaining equitable payment for virtual visits for the thousands of patients we serve in rural parts of the country. As always, despite the long hours and vociferous debates, the meeting left me renewed, refreshed and inspired to continue the work we do to care for our patients and our communities. Read my State of the Section remarks (PDF).
The AMA meetings focus on policy. Each meeting we review hundreds of resolutions addressing a variety of issues related to public health and physicians’ practices. The bulk of this work for our section is done by our delegate and alternate delegate. Without effective and hardworking delegates, our section would not have the voice that it does and so, as the newsletter after the interim meeting, I want to highlight our delegates: IMGS Delegate Deepu Sudhakaran, MD, and IMGS Alternate Delegate Luis Isea, MD.
Meet the delegate and alternate delegate
Deepu Sudhakaran, MD
Dr. Sudhakaran, a board-certified bariatric surgeon at Chesterfield Bariatric Surgery in St. Louis, Missouri, graduated from Medical College Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India, and conducted research at Royal Adelaide Hospital, Australia. He completed surgical residencies at LSU New Orleans and fellowships at the University of South Carolina and the University of Miami.
Additionally, Dr. Sudhakaran holds an MBA from Washington University in St. Louis. He is the president of the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery-Missouri Chapter and was the president of the Indian Medical Council of St. Louis. Outside work, he enjoys family time with his wife, Javitta, and their two daughters.
Luis Isea, MD
Dr. Isea is an academic internal medicine physician, currently serving as assistant program director of the Internal Medicine Residency Program at AdventHealth Orlando. He completed medical school in Caracas, Venezuela, then immigrated to the U.S. to pursue his internal medicine residency training at AdventHealth Orlando. He is passionate about increasing awareness of health inequities affecting underrepresented minorities and advocating to increase fair IMG representation and diversity in the physician workforce. He enjoys building Lego sets.
Contact us
As always, if you have any additional concerns or issues you would like me to address at the AMA or cover in a future newsletter, please do not hesitate to reach out at [email protected].
