All Things Advocacy at OMED24 - A sit-down with the VP of Advocacy and Political Affairs for the AOA, Sean Neal

This month the ACOPedscast has its second “live on location” episode with Jason and Scott coming to you from the 2024 OMED Conference in San Antonio, Texas, and like the last on-location episode from DO Day on the Hill in Washington DC, the topic is how to serve as physician advocates. Jason and Scott also take advantage of being at the AOA’s largest annual gathering to pull a very special guest to the Pedscast, Sean Neal. Sean is part of the AOA Washington DC office and serves as the Vice President of Advocacy and Political Affairs for the organization.

In this episode we get a first-hand look at how the AOA advocates for our patients and our profession and how you can get involved in legislative advocacy at all levels. We also discuss the resources available to you as members of the AOA ranging from help for the novice advocate in getting in contact with your local representatives to getting prepared to run for public office yourself!

Sean explains the difference between the AOA, the American Osteopathic Information Association (AOIA), and the Osteopathic Political Action Committee (OPAC), breaking down what each arm does in relation to healthcare advocacy and how you can get involved in each. He gives us a boots-on-the-ground evaluation of the current environment on Capitol Hill.

We hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed recording it. Look for more episodes like this in the future as Scott and Jason sit down with other members of the AOA Policy Team to learn more about the various ways the AOA supports our profession.

See you in October!

If you are interested in learning more, links are provided below:

• AOA: osteopathic.org
• Osteopathic Advocacy Network: Osteopathic Advocacy Network - American Osteopathic Association
• AOIA/OPAC: AOIA-OPAC (osteopathicpac.org)