UNMC’s Rohan Khazanchi joins AMA medical education council

UNMC will have two seats on the American Medical Association (AMA) Council on Medical Education for the upcoming 2020-21 academic year. Rohan Khazanchi, a third-year student in the UNMC College of Medicine, has been selected to serve in the medical-student seat.

He joins Kelly Caverzagie, M.D., associate dean for educational strategy, who is currently serving a five-year term that ends in 2023.

“Dr. Caverzagie has been a great mentor,” Khazanchi said. “I’ll be excited to work with him.”

Though Khazanchi fills a student seat — there is a resident seat, as well — he assumes full board member responsibilities for his one-year term. That begins in June, though, “A lot of this transition is going to be virtual,” he said.

Likewise, Khazanchi predicts that the ongoing COVID-19 public health emergency, and medical education’s response to it, will be a large part of the council’s work for the next year. That’s especially true in his case, where he has pledged to represent the point of view of medical students.

“In the fall, medical students are usually working on their residency applications and preparing to interview around the country. We don’t know exactly what that process is going to look like.

“Our clinical rotations are on hold right now,” he said. Board exams and testing centers are in limbo, or shut down.

“It’s a huge source of anxiety,” he said.

Khazanchi has been active and taken leadership positions in the AMA throughout his med school career through the AMA-Medical Student Section and the Nebraska Medical Association (NMA). The NMA endorsed his candidacy for the AMA council, as did the Medical Student Section’s governing council.

He helped co-found the Nebraska Health Policy Network in 2017, a grassroots group which discusses current developments in health policy, testifies at the Nebraska unicameral on priority priorities, and leads educational events for UNMC and Creighton students.

His peers selected him as one of two curriculum chairs for the first class to take part in UNMC’s “Training the Physicians of Tomorrow” curriculum.

In addition to education, he is passionate about combatting health inequities.