Psychiatrists who belong to the American Medical Association have another opportunity to take an action that will increase APA’s influence at the AMA’s chief policymaking body, the House of Delegates.

Three years ago, the AMA changed its system for determining representation in the House of Delegates so that medical specialty societies have more clout than they had in the previous system. Under the reorganization, APA and the other specialty societies gain additional delegates based on the number of votes that AMA members cast in favor of naming that specialty society to represent them in the House of Delegates.

The new proportional representation system has already resulted in a substantial increase in APA’s influence at the AMA, with APA having three delegates and three alternates as of last year.

The option for voting for APA as their representative is not limited to psychiatrists who belong to APA—members of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) who also belong to the AMA can name APA as their House of Delegates representative.

Moreoever, psychiatrists who belong to neither psychiatric organization but are members of the AMA can also vote for APA as their representative. About 10,000 AMA members identify themselves as psychiatrists, which means that APA has the potential to increase its strength and influence at the AMA even further.

The voting system is cumulative. That is, only AMA member psychiatrists who have not voted in the three previous elections since the AMA reformed its representation system in the House of Delegates are eligible to cast ballots this year. Those who have already voted for a specialty society have that vote count as long as they are AMA members, but have the right to change their vote during subsequent elections.

APA has mailed AMA-member psychiatrists who have not yet voted for a specialty society representative a letter notifying them of their eligibility to vote.

This year’s voters have four simple balloting options, described in the box at right. Everyone who votes must also provide his or her 11-digit AMA medical education number.

The voting deadline is December 31.

Beginning with this election, the AMA is introducing another change in the proportional representation scheme. It will use a formula of adding one new delegate and alternate for every 1,000 votes cast on behalf of a specialty society instead of the 2,000 required since the system was initiated in 1996.