Welcome to the American College of Academic International Medicine. We are delighted to encourage your further interest in this unique and exceptional organization. After 27 years as an academic physician, it is a pleasure for me to serve this organization as President. ACAIM embodies all that is valuable and altruistic about academic medicine, and I can sum it up in three words: EDUCATE, DISSEMINATE, DEVELOP.
EDUCATE: ACAIM strives to bring the highest level of medical knowledge and medical care to the world. We support and showcase pure academic medicine through our global efforts and policies. International ACAIM members engage in the education and training of physicians, nurses, midwives, and community health workers throughout the world, from training community workers in the Andes to teach mothers how to provide nutritious meals to their families, to teaching surgeons in Iraq to perform living donor renal transplants. Everywhere we go, we are resource sensitive and culturally humble as we train local healers in sustainable interventions that improve health. We oppose "cut and run" and "drug drop" type "medical missions" in favor of educating and empowering local medical professionals and community workers to do what they do best: provide care to their own people, the people who trust them and whose language and culture they understand.
DISSEMINATE: Knowledge in isolation helps no one, and successful interventions restricted to one community help few. ACAIM hosts four medical journals to disseminate cutting edge medical knowledge and to share successful interventions that may be employed in other resource limited settings, thereby making health, healing, and well being accessible to the entire world. Journal articles are available on an open access platform, so are not restricted to individuals who have access to medical libraries or are affiliated with medical schools. In addition, ACAIM hosts a reasonably priced, scaled registration fee continuing medical education conference once a year. This conference is offered in the hybrid model so that those who cannot afford to travel are still able to participate in every lecture and every meeting by live stream. We encourage those from resource rich countries to sponsor those from resource limited countries, and to sponsor students and residents/ registrars, but never, never is anyone excluded due to inability to pay a registration fee. This year, I am proud that we are hosting our annual meeting at my home institution. the Whiddon College of Medicine of the University of South Alabama in the beautiful coastal beach city of Mobile, Alabama. I look forward to meeting you there.
