About two years ago, Mercie DiGangi, president of the Los Angeles County Medical Association's Western University chapter, felt her medical school classes were coming up short. Her professors were not providing lectures on the politics of medicine and the business of healthcare.

"I had this idea of inviting four LACMA doctors to speak at Western University every year about topics that weren't covered in our classrooms," DiGangi says. "Physicians would educate us on organized medicine, healthcare legislation and building a practice. The presentations would prepare us for the practice environment when we graduate."

LACMA members jumped at the chance to interact more with medical students and launched a four-part speaker series at Western University in 2004. Individual speakers make presentations in November, January, February and March. This marks the second year of the association's program.

In November 2005, Thomas Horowitz, DO, a graduate of Western University's first medical school class, kicked off the speaker series, which drew a crowd of 100 medical students. Dr. Horowitz emphasized the importance of joining organized medicine and revealed how politics impact the profession.

"Medical students are future physicians and must be involved in the political process," says Dr. Horowitz, a Los Angeles family practitioner. "If they're not, legislators will pass healthcare policies that will negatively affect their practice."

Dr. Horowitz also discussed how a bill moves through the California Legislature and gets passed into law. Further, he distributed a handout of the California Medical Association's Legislative Hot List and discussed the CMA's positions on current healthcare legislation.

"Students learned a lot about the significance of building relationships with legislators and how they can influence healthcare policy," DiGangi says.

Medical students who attend all four events will receive a letter from the dean of the college in recognition of their efforts to get involved in medical-related activities. The document becomes an accolade placed in their files.

"When the medical students began asking me questions, they reminded me of how I used to be in my early days," Dr. Horowitz says. "Young people have so many fresh and innovative ideas and new ways of thinking. Organized medicine really needs this kind of energy."

Previous Western University speakers include LACMA President Clayton Patchett, MD, and former LACMA President S. Daniel Higgins, MD. Additional speakers for this year's program are still being confirmed.