Psychiatry Resident Receives AMA Leadership Award
Rebecca Kornbluh, M.D., was among 50 young medical professionals to receive the AMA award.
To reinforce this point, the American Medical Association (AMA) bestowed its AMA Foundation leadership award on Rebecca Kornbluh, M.D., in March for her outstanding work with the Massachusetts Psychiatric Society.
Kornbluh, who is a PGY-4 resident at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, founded the Resident Council of the Massachusetts Psychiatric Society in 1999 and chaired that council for two years.
The council provides a forum for residents in Massachusetts to become active in organized psychiatry.
Under Kornbluh’s leadership, the council launched two major petition campaigns among Massachusetts citizens.
One petition contributed to the May 2000 passage of the mental health parity bill in Massachusetts, and the other campaign helped keep Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center open after officials threatened to close almost all of its psychiatric services due to financial setbacks (Psychiatric News, February 2).
Kornbluh received her M.D. degree from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine in 1997. She serves as the APA/Glaxo-Wellcome Fellow on APA’s Joint Commision on Government Relations.
She was one of 50 young medical professionals—and the only psychiatry resident—to receive the award this year.
The AMA Foundation Leadership Award honors 25 residents and 25 medical students each year for exceptional leadership and achievements in nonclinical community activities. The award covers the winners’ expenses to attend the AMA’s National Leadership Conference, which is held every March in Washington, D.C.
The meeting gives recipients the chance to participate in a series of training sessions designed to enhance leadership skills for their future careers. The AMA Foundation was established in 1950 and supports medical education for thousands of physicians, students, and medical professionals. ▪
