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Ali M. Khan, M.D., who graduated from the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine in 2009, and current M.D.-Ph.D. student Chelsea Cockburn have recently taken on leadership roles with the American College of Physicians, the second-largest physician group in the U.S.

Khan is chair of the American College of Physicians’ National Council of Resident/Fellow Members. He has served on the national council that represents the interests of more than 22,000 residents and fellows-in-training since his intern year at Yale-New Haven Hospital. In his senior year of residency, Khan was elected by the 11-member council to serve as its chair-elect, representing the voices and interests of the resident and fellow members on the ACP’s Board of Governors. Now he has transitioned into the chair’s seat and serves on the Board of Regents, the ACP’s highest governing body.

“Since graduating, the bulk of my health policy and advocacy work has lived in the ACP,” said Khan, who has also served on the ACP’s public policy and medical practice committees.

“Over the past five years, my work has focused primarily in two arenas: furthering the college’s role as a hub of leadership training and development for trainees and, accordingly, focusing our role as a council in catalyzing the value proposition and engagement opportunities for trainees.”

Khan has helped lead ACP’s High Value Care initiative, which educates and engages physicians as well as residents and fellows in how to practice in a value-sensitive, thoughtful manner for resource stewardship and patient engagement. At the ACP’s annual meeting, he co-hosted the council’s marquee event, a TED talk-style national forum for promising innovations and bright ideas for teaching high-value care.

When he’s not serving at the ACP, Khan is a clinical innovator and director of physician engagement at Boston-based Iora Health. He practices general internal medicine at Iora’s super-utilizer clinic serving medically complex casino workers in Las Vegas and also serves on Yale’s clinical faculty.

In April, Cockburn began a four-year term on the ACP’s National Council of Student Members, a 13-member group that advises the Board of Regents and Board of Governors on promoting internal medicine as a career and increasing the value of ACP membership to medical students.

She’ll be assigned a region of medical schools in the U.S. and will help advise the internal medicine interest groups at those schools to strengthen activities at the chapter level. She’s also been selected to represent the council on the ACP Education and Publication Committee that provides scientific and professional information to physicians, trainees and patients.

Originally from Harrisonburg, Virginia, Cockburn entered the M.D.-Ph.D. program in 2013 and in March 2015 began her graduate training in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. She’s been an admissions tour guide and was a trip leader for HOMBRE, the annual student-led medical relief trip to Honduras. With a strong interest in global health, Cockburn plans on doing a fellowship in infectious disease after a residency in internal medicine.

The ACP is a national organization of internists and is the country’s second-largest medical-physician organization, behind only the American Medical Association. Its membership of 141,000 includes internists and internal medicine subspecialists as well as medical students, residents and fellows. An influential voice in American health care, the ACP is celebrating 100 years since its founding in 1915.

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