| To: |
Assembly of Presidents
Board of Deans
Title VII Program Directors
Council of Student Financial Aid Administrators |
| From: |
Tamara Thompson-Johnson
Senior Legislative Associate/Diversity Coordinator |
| Date: |
January 3, 2008 |
| Subject: |
Title VII Reauthorization – Deadline Fast Approaching; Your Action Needed Now |
As you are all aware, the Title VII programs of the Public Health Service Act, which are of major importance to colleges of osteopathic medicine, are scheduled to be reauthorized during the 110th Congress. Our initial talks with key Congressional staff have yielded a good deal of information about the climate in which we will be working. During the reauthorization process, we will work with staff to structure these programs in a way that retains their purpose while demonstrating their effectiveness to ensure that the President will no longer propose their elimination in his budget. AACOM, as chair of the Federation of Associations of Schools of the Health Professions (FASHP) government relations group, is working with other health professions associations to alter how Congress and the Administration view the Title VII programs. Specifically, Title VII advocates want to develop mechanisms that will allow the program’s outcomes to be measured; to date, the chief criticism of these programs has focused on lack of measurable outcomes. Advocates would also like to show the link between these programs and health professions workforce shortages, the new model of the primary care medical home, and health disparities.
As we begin this process, we will pursue additional Congressional champions for the Title VII programs and educate Congress and the Administration about the past success and continued importance of these programs. This is where you help is needed. As recipients of the Title VII funding, you can personalize the data that staff receives from HRSA by sharing individual success stories about these programs. We want to show Members of Congress and their staffs that these programs affect real people who want to be physicians in their districts and states. Attached is a 
brochure from the Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine as an example of the type of information for which we are looking. Please provide these personalized anecdotes, narratives and/or brochures to me by January 4, 2008.
Please send documents electronically (preferred) to: govtrelations@aacom.org or by mail to the address below:
If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at the address above or call me at (301) 968-4151.
Thank you in advance for your assistance in this important project.
Tamara Thompson-Johnson
Senior Legislative Associate/Diversity Coordinator
American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine
5550 Friendship Boulevard, Suite 310
Chevy Chase, MD 20815-7231