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Houston, we have a program. This August, hundreds of doctors from across Texas will gather in the Bayou City for the state’s largest family practice convention, TAFP’s 52nd Annual Session and Scientific Assembly. This year’s event, Family Practice CME & Expo 2001, promises to have all the right stuff—fascinating CME presentations, illuminating discussions, more than 100 interesting exhibits from all sectors of the health industry and of course, the company of your colleagues. And it’s all set in the heart of one of the country’s greatest cities. From the famed Space Center Houston to Enron Field, H-Town has it all. You won’t want to miss what might just be the best Annual Session yet. Prepare to blast off into the galaxy of family practice as Houston becomes mission control for Family Practice CME & Expo 2001. Not many years after the birth of TAFP, America set off on a fantastic journey. The country turned its pioneering eye to the heavens and the great space race was underway. The city of Houston has for decades been at the heart of a series of great human accomplishments that followed, and many of the artifacts of that exploration are here for your perusal. It is only fitting that in the year 2001, a year that brings to mind new frontiers and what might lie beyond, TAFP would choose Texas’ historic home of stellar exploration to be the host city for its annual family practice extravaganza. This year’s meeting will again feature a concurrent track system for many of the CME events so attendees may choose a focus of study if desired. Tracks will concentrate on women’s health, neurology, pediatrics, and geriatrics. Others will cover cardiovascular issues and endocrinology, pharmacology and dermatology. The academy will also host three-hour concurrent workshops on parenting skills, podiatry and erectile dysfunction among many other topics. Understand the use for cryotherapy and punch biopsy and demonstrate these techniques on a pig’s foot model in the presentation on dermatological procedures and suturing techniques, or take a lesson in HCFA coding and learn to set up an effective compliance program for your practice in the practice management workshop. Are you hearing more and more about ADHD in adults? Earn 3 hours of CME on the subject Thursday afternoon, or choose to hear Scott Conrad, M.D., speak on insulin pump therapy on Saturday morning. Overall, more than 25 hours of CME will be available at the conference. Don’t miss this opportunity to join a gathering of family physicians who have the right stuff to strengthen the specialty of family practice and commit to its advancement in the new century. |
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Opening
Night Reception The Family Practice Expo 2001 experience takes off here, in the midst of the excited buzz of the exhibit hall at the Westin Galleria Hotel. Doctors and their guests will have a chance to see some of the newest products and services on the market, from voice recognition and accounts receivable software to the latest pharmaceuticals and clinical equipment. Food and drink will be available, so plan to meet, mingle, explore the exhibitions and place a bid in the annual TAFP Foundation Live Auction. Keynote
Address After breakfast in the exhibit hall, get the day and the convention started right by attending the keynote address by Richard T. Jennings, M.D., who served a 7-year stint as chief of the Flight Medicine Clinic at NASA from 1988-95. Currently Dr. Jennings serves as assistant professor of family medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, preventive medicine and community health at the UT Medical Branch at Galveston. Jennings has done extensive research in such fascinating areas as changes in the human immune system during and following space flight, animal and human reproductive issues in space and space motion sickness and its treatment. He has even been involved in studying space shuttle medical care systems. Guest
Get-together Attendee guests and spouses gather to share experiences or map plans for excursions in the Bayou City while the doctors attend CME events. Come down and have some coffee and muffins. There might be something special for the kids, so bring them along. Meet the friends you know and make some new ones, and who knows, you might just win a great door prize. PrimeCME Plus Luncheon Lectures Again this year, you’ll have the opportunity to learn while you lunch at the PrimeCME Luncheon Lectures. Friday’s lunch, sponsored by Pharmacia Corporation, features a presentation on incontinence. On Saturday, TAP Pharmaceuticals is sponsoring “Fire in the Belly and Beyond: Update on GERD and Other Secretory Disorders.” Presidential
Masquerade Ball Don your mask and prepare for a night of dinner, dancing and intrigue at the convention’s grandest event. On this evening, TAFP honors its outgoing president and welcomes a new president to office. Meet for cocktails to start the affair then take a seat in the ballroom for a repast. The officer installation and presidential address is always a proud moment for the academy, and when it’s over, the reveling begins. A live orchestra plays and partygoers twirl into the twilight—-don’t miss out on this celebration. |
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When you find a spare moment, get out and enjoy some of what Houston has to offer. According to new census reports, more than 2 million people live in the 617-square-mile area. More than 90 languages are spoken in this international center of culture, one of only five U.S. cities hosting permanent ballet, opera, symphony and theatre companies. The 17-block Theatre District is home to eight performing arts organizations and more than 12,000 theater seats. Do you like live music? After a day at the conference, head downtown to enjoy the Houston International Jazz Festival, scheduled for August 3-5. The festival has hosted such names as Stanley Turrentine, Chuck Mangione and Spyro Gyra in the past. For details, call 713-839-7000. In Houston, shopping is serious business, and you won’t have to go far for a browse through some of the world’s finest boutiques. Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Lord & Taylor, Macy’s, Gucci, Emporio Armani, Tiffany & Co. and Gianni Versace are just a few of the shops in the Houston Galleria, on the same grounds as the Westin Galleria Hotel, the site of the conference. Known as the Uptown/Galleria community, the surrounding area offers 4 square miles of first-class hotels, beautiful parks, gourmet restaurants and exquisite shopping opportunities. Thirty miles west of the city, Katy Mills offers a trove of outlet stores for the cost-conscious shopper. Don’t forget—-the weekend of the conference is also the state’s tax holiday, so plan to shop without guilt in one of the country’s most fantastic marketplaces. Lush green spaces and grand architecture welcome guests to Houston’s Museum District, including the Museum of Fine Arts, the Contemporary Arts Museum, Holocaust Museum Houston, the Museum of Natural Science and more. Physicians and their families will want to take a tour through a Texas-sized human body at the Amazing Body Pavilion in the Museum of Health and Medical Science. Tour mission control at the Space Center Houston and catch a glimpse of the great space race. See actual spacecraft like the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo capsules, meet live astronauts in training, and then step into Texas’ largest IMAX theatre for a show. Of course, this quick list of Houston attractions doesn’t begin to tell the whole story. Houston has more than 100 golf courses, Enron Field and the Astros, horse racing, dog racing, arena football, basketball, disc golf and much more. Six Flags Splashtown is the biggest water park in Texas. Then there’s AstroWorld and WaterWorld, the Houston Zoological Gardens in scenic Hermann Park, and more. TAFP couldn’t have picked a better place for this year’s conference. Visit www.houston-guide.com for more information. Click here to register for Annual Session.
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