Physician Advocacy Fellowship

Goals & History

The Physician Advocacy Fellowship supported doctors as they developed or enhanced their advocacy skills by implementing a project in partnership with an advocacy organization. The Fellowship allowed them to do this by supporting 50% of their salary, offering opportunities for collaboration, and creating a robust network of like-minded physicians advocates across the U.S.

Between 1999 and 2007, the IMAP Physician Advocacy Fellowship program supported doctors as they developed or enhanced their advocacy skills by implementing a project in partnership with an advocacy organization. During the fellowship period, 44 fellows in 16 states and Washington D.C. received awards to implement projects addressing issues including Medicaid coverage and enrollment, health care access, pediatric oral health, prison health care, and housing. The fellowship supported 50 percent of their salary over a two-year period (the average salary of a primary care physician or pediatrician is $150,000). Explore our past fellows and the projects they undertook during their time as fellows. To this day, the fellows gather annually to discuss the salient issues characterizing health and social advocacy at the Division's Physician Advocacy Conference.

Fellows have developed health care advocacy skills by working in the following areas:

  • Community organizing and mobilization around health outcomes disparities and health care access.
  • Communicating with national, state, and local regulatory and administrative bodies to advocate for outcomes that include better pediatric oral health care and broader coverage by state Medicaid programs.
  • Advocating for changes that produce better services and outcomes for vulnerable populations, including children in foster care, detainees seeking asylum, and individuals who are incarcerated.
  • Advancing the health concerns of public housing residents to municipal housing agencies.
  • Mobilizing health care providers to increase the availability of reproductive health options.
  • Using media to raise public awareness about the need for greater access to health care.
  • Educating the public on policies that address youth violence, health care consumer protection, and early childhood education.