News from ACOI

Advice for Residents: Dr. De Shadarevian Believes that Finding Time for Advocacy is Part of the Job

Melanie De Shadarevian is a Post-Graduate Year 3, Internal Medicine Resident at Scripps Mercy Hospital in San Diego. A daughter of Lebanese, Armenian, and Syrian immigrants, she was raised with ingrained values of gratitude and is leveraging her observations of life, and her vast exposure to a multitude of cultures, into a heart for serving underserved populations. Whether she connects with patients speaking French, Spanish, or Arabic, she is happy to give them the comfort of speaking to them in their native language when she can while addressing their care in the signature holistic way that makes her proud to be a DO.

Check Out Our Featured Keynote Speakers

When you join us at ACOI 2023, you’ll witness unique speakers that will no doubt expand your mind and challenge your perspectives. In honor of this year’s theme—Health, Wellness, or Medicine?—the ACOI is proud to present a broad spectrum of keynote speakers and topics that will have you thinking about health, gratitude, and the future of medicine.

CMS Issues CY2024 Physician Fee Schedule Proposed Rule

Payment Update Threatens Practice Stability

Yesterday, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the 2024 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) proposed rule.

ACOI Education Fulfills DEA Requirements

As of June 27, 2023, all DEA registered practitioners must complete a one-time eight-hour training requirement on the treatment and management of patients with opioid or other substance use disorders. Fulfill all eight hours of DEA training through the ACOI Online Learning Center.

Advocating for Our LGBTQIA+ Patients

Pride is people finding strength, courage, and a common voice to demand equality and destroy systemic legal, medical, media, and social oppressions that exist. We need to focus on this rather than the media’s focus on corporations that support the LGBTQIA+ population.

Celebrating Those Who Match into Internal Medicine and SOIMA Updates

At Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences, the passionate faculty within the Internal Medicine department put out an entire smoked brisket spread, complete with all the tasty sides, for the graduating students that matched into Internal Medicine. This tradition is supported by the faculty who are passionate about celebrating and encouraging their future colleagues.

A Medical Student’s Experience at the AACOM’s Educating Leaders 2023 and Why It is Important to Attend Conferences

From April 26 to April 28, 2023, the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine (AACOM) celebrated its 125th anniversary at the Educating Leaders 2023 (EL23) conference in Baltimore, MD. EL23 was my first ever in-person conference, but it will not be my last.

Dr. Troy L. Randle Hasn’t Let Life’s Challenges Uproot Him

The old saying, where there’s a will, there’s a way isn’t just a saying for Troy L. Randle, DO, FACOI, FACC, MBA.

ACOI’s History Captured Thanks to Kevin Hubbard, DO, MACOI

Kevin P. Hubbard, DO, MACOI, is the name on the cover of the ACOI history book, A History of Osteopathic Internal Medicine – Celebrating the ACOI’s First 75 Years. Yet he’s not comfortable calling himself its creator.   “I really don't consider myself the author of the book. I'm more of the scribe. I was just the person who wrote down the things that had happened. The history was made by the people that the book talks about,” he says.   

March Advocacy Updates

Needed MVP Improvements Outlined in Letter to CMS 

Some specialties have a new voluntary way to meet Merit-based Incentive Payment System (

A Letter from the SOIMA Officers

Get to know this year's SOIMA Officers and learn their version of SBAR, an efficient communication tool developed by the US Navy and adopted by many healthcare systems.

Brysen Keith, DO, PGYII, Shares His Experiences and Gives Advice to Residents 

Dr. Brysen Keith is a PGYII at Miami’s Jackson Memorial Health Center. While he is someone who fits the mold of “taking the road less traveled,” that is the only mold he fits.

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