Health Policy Advocacy: From the Bedside to the House

Monday, April 7, 2025

4:30pm – 4:50pm ET

Location: Versailles - 2nd Level

CE: 0.25 CME Credit

Speaker(s)

Cortlyn Brown, MD, MCSP, FAAEM (she/her/hers)

Vice Director for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Carolinas Atrium Health
Charlotte, North Carolina

Disclosure(s): No financial relationships to disclose

Co-Speaker(s)

Valerie A. Pierre, MD, FAAEM, FACEP (she/her/hers)

Assistant Professor
University of Maryland
Baltimore, Maryland

Disclosure(s): No financial relationships to disclose

Disclosure(s):

Cortlyn Brown, MD, MCSP, FAAEM: No financial relationships to disclose

Emergency medicine (EM) physicians instinctively advocate for our colleagues, profession, patients, and communities while on shift. When it comes to health policy and legislative advocacy, however, most EM physicians have zero formal training. To ensure inclusivity, in this session we will provide individuals with the tools to effectively and efficiently utilize their unique training and experience to analyze laws and advocate for policy changes.

Learning Objectives:

Upon completion of the workshop, participants will have a basic understanding the legislative process (how an idea becomes a law) at the state and national level.
describe 3 inside (ex. individual written communication with policymakers, testifying in committee, information analysis and presentation) and outside (ex. coalition building, letter writing campaigns, and social media outreach) advocacy strategies.
implement at least 2 strategies to maximize the power while increasing the efficiency of each of the advocacy strategies described above