Health is Primary Encourages Students and Residents to Be Champions for Primary Care. During the Health is Primary Main Stage Session at the AAFP’s National Conference of Family Medicine Residents and Medical Students, physician and rapper ZDoggMD premiered a poignant music video, which showcased the value of family medicine and primary care and the critical role we play in the health care system. To the tune of Lukas Graham’s hit song “7 years” ZDoggMD describes his journey to becoming a primary care physician – despite encouragement to choose subspecialties – and the impact caring for patients has had on his life. He highlights the need for change in health care and the importance of working together to produce a “Health Care 3.0” that values primary care and patients. The full four-minute music video can be viewed and shared from healthisprimary.org.
Click here for coverage of the event.
The event also focused on addressing the primary care shortage. KCUR (Kansas City’s NPR affiliate) and Fox4KC both ran stories about the critical role of primary care in addressing the nation’s health care needs.
August is Immunization Month. Health is Primary has released materials and tear sheets for patients on the importance of immunizations across the life span. Click here for more information.
National Conference Workshop on Achieving Wellness in Medical Education
The Workforce project team on the Prevention of Student and Resident Burnout held workshops at the recent AAFP National Conference. Due to its popularity, the workshop titled: “Healing the Healer: Achieving Wellness in Medical Education” was offered three times throughout the three-day conference. Approximately 150 students and residents attended the sessions and listened as Dr. Christina Kelly, Dr. Kristina Dakis, and Joe Brodine presented a review of evidence on medical student anxiety, depression and burnout.
Participants also engaged in a process of self-reflection focusing on ways that stress and depression could have been prevented in their own medical training and worked together in small groups to analyze various strategies to combat burnout as well as to develop action steps to achieve student and resident burnout prevention. The information gathered from participants at the workshops will be incorporated into work the Workforce Tactic Team is doing to achieve its core strategy to increase the number of high quality students going into family medicine and strengthen the supports required for sustaining student, resident, and practicing physician training and interest in primary care.
Summit to Address the Shortage of High-Quality Primary Care Community Preceptors
STFM is taking a lead role on a core task of FMAHealth’s Workforce Tactic Team: Identifying, developing, and disseminating resources for community preceptors. STFM will be hosting a Summit to Address the Shortage of High Quality Primary Care Community Preceptors Aug. 26-
27 in Kansas City, MO. Approximately 50 participants representing a wide array of organizations and constituencies will come together to address drivers affecting the shortage of primary care community preceptors and develop a plan to meet two primary aims:
1. To decrease the percentage of primary care clerkship directors who report difficulty finding clinical preceptor sites
2. Increase the percentage of students completing clerkships at high-functioning sites
The Workforce Tactic Team, along with many other stakeholders, participated in a working group led by STFM that provided input into both the aims and drivers that should be addressed during the Summit as well as recommendations about the attendees who have been invited to produce a range of diverse perspectives. Connie Goldgar, M.S., PA-C, faculty at University of Utah Physician Assistant Program, will be attending the summit as the Workforce Team’s representative. Ideas and recommendations generated at the summit will prove useful to STFM in its work to expand the number of high quality primary care community preceptors and are likely to help spark the future efforts of FMAHealth’s Workforce Team.
New Team Members Added to Three FMAHealth Core Teams
FMAHealth Core Teams are teams of 5-6 people who lead each of the seven Tactic Teams focused on: Practice, Payment, Engagement, Technology, Research, Workforce Education & Development, and Health Disparities. Recently, new team members were added to the Research, Workforce Education & Development, and Cross-Tactic Team on Health Disparities Core Teams. The response to the call for nominations was overwhelming with many talented candidates applying for just five open positions. The Core Teams as well as the FMAHealth Board were faced with making difficult decisions, but after careful consideration and several lengthy deliberations, invitations were extended to the following individuals:
Workforce Education & Development: Wanda Gonsalves, M.D. – University of Kentucky College of Medicine & University of Kentucky Healthcare at Turfland
Research: Jennifer Carroll, M.D., MPH – American Academy of Family Physicians National Research Network
Cross-Tactic Team on Health Disparities: Joedrecka Brown Speights, M.D., FAAFP – Florida State University College of Medicine
Cross-Tactic Team on Health Disparities: Bonzo Reddick, M.D., MPH, FAAFP – Memorial Health University Medical Center & Mercer University School of Medicine, Savannah
Cross-Tactic Team on Health Disparities: Jennifer Young Choe Edgoose, M.D., MPH – University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
The Board is pleased to welcome these new team members and looks forward to tapping their expertise and passion to drive work the Core Teams are engaging in on behalf of FMAHealth. Additionally, the Board hopes to engage the candidates who applied but were not selected in projects the Tactic Teams are undertaking. For a full list of members of the seven Core Teams please visit the Leadership page on FMAHealth.org.
