American Medical Women's Association

The oldest multispecialty organization dedicated to advancing women physicians and improving the health of women.

About

The American Medical Women's Association (AMWA) is the oldest multispecialty organization dedicated to advancing women physicians and improving the health of women. For more than a century, AMWA has been the vision and voice of women in medicine, pursuing its mission through leadership, advocacy, education, mentorship, and strategic partnerships.

AMWA has a long publishing history. Its members produced a series of consumer health references in the 1990s, including The Women's Complete Health Book (Delacorte Press, 1995), the AMWA Guide to Pregnancy and Childbirth (1996), the AMWA Guide to Cardiovascular Health (1997), and The Complete Family Health Book (1999). The association's flagship scholarly publication, the Journal of the American Medical Women's Association (JAMWA), ran from 1946 to 2005 and grew out of earlier titles that trace back to the Bulletin of the Medical Women's National Association, first published in 1922.

AMWA shares updates on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X, and Bluesky.

Latest articles

Conditions and diseases

COPD in women starts with subtle signs physicians can miss

American Medical Women's Association

November 7, 2026Nov 7, 2026

In my teens, I watched my grandmother slowly change and wither away. I can still remember the feel of her bones under my arms as I advanced through my teen years as her already slim frame became slimmer. I watched as her breathing became more labored, there were more trips to the hospital, and she eventually became tethered to oxygen at ever-increasing flow rates. The sound of the portable concentrator …

Health policy

Why pre-Roe abortion stories matter again after Dobbs

American Medical Women's Association

August 4, 2026Aug 4, 2026

History has a way of repeating itself. In the years leading up to the Supreme Court's 2022 Dobbs decision, many women in their seventies, eighties, and nineties still remembered what life was like before Roe v. Wade. They remembered the…

History has a way of repeating itself.

In the years leading up to the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs decision, many women in their seventies, eighties, and nineties still remembered what life was like before Roe v. Wade. They remembered the hidden abortions, the whispered conversations, and the unspoken secrets. A handful of films (including If These Walls Could Talk, A Private Matter, Call Jane, and Ask for Jane) capture pieces of …

Physician voices

Four years after Dobbs, the untold stories still matter

American Medical Women's Association

July 31, 2026Jul 31, 2026

Last month marked the fourth anniversary of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, the Supreme Court decision that fundamentally changed reproductive health care in the United States, returning many parts of the country to a reality that most practicing physicians…

Last month marked the fourth anniversary of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the Supreme Court decision that fundamentally changed reproductive health care in the United States, returning many parts of the country to a reality that most practicing physicians and many patients had never experienced. Since then, access to reproductive health care and even routine pregnancy care, like miscarriage management, is based not on medical evidence or clinical judgment …

Physician voices

What becoming a chief medical officer taught a shy doctor

American Medical Women's Association

July 28, 2026Jul 28, 2026

I never sought out leadership. It found me. We met when I clumsily stumbled into it as a junior faculty. Razor-focused on patient care and teaching, I stared at my clinical leader with bewilderment when she asked me if I had thought about becoming an associate program director. While I questioned whether I had the experience or qualifications, I took on the role, and found deep fulfillment and joy in …

Drugs and prescribing

What is the Medicare GLP-1 Bridge program?

American Medical Women's Association & Eliza Lo Chin, MD, MPH

July 2, 2026Jul 2, 2026

As our understanding of obesity as a chronic disease has evolved, one paradox has been the ongoing barriers to accessing effective therapeutics for this condition, an approach vastly different from the way we treat other chronic diseases like heart disease,…

Thankfully, that era has ended, and in July of this year, Medicare will begin covering access to GLP-1s for the treatment of obesity.

Why is this important for …

Conditions and diseases

The hidden struggle of women with rare diseases

American Medical Women's Association & Eliza Lo Chin, MD, MPH

March 24, 2025Mar 24, 2025

Rare diseases were not something I studied in any depth in medical school or residency. It was my aunt, Dr. Vivian Shih, who first raised my awareness of this area of medicine. A nationally renowned researcher studying inborn errors of…

Rare diseases were not something I studied in any depth in medical school or residency.

It was my aunt, Dr. Vivian Shih, who first raised my awareness of this area of medicine. A nationally renowned researcher studying inborn errors of metabolism, her work reminded me of the biochemical pathways I had studied as an undergraduate. Though I trained at the same medical school where she worked, these conditions were

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