Research group honors Katerndahl

San Antonio’s David Katerndahl, M.D., has received high honors from the North American Primary Care Research Group. He earned the group’s prestigious President’s Recognition Award at the November 2002 NAPCRG Annual Meeting in New Orleans, La.

This recognition follows Katerndahl’s contributions to the development of the Grant Generating Project, which he directed from its inception in 1995 to 1999. The project seeks to equip family medicine researchers with the skills they need to successfully develop and submit grants for research funding. Specifically, the GGP assists family medicine researchers in securing their first RO1 grant. As of April 2003, GGP alumni have reported 100 grants funded, for an aggregate total of more than $21.8 million, since their year of participation in the program. Major awards have come from the National Library of Medicine and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Katerndahl has been a NAPCRG member for the past 20 years. More information on the GGP may be found at their Web site, www.fcm.missouri.edu/research-ggp.htm or contact the GGP office at schuberts@health.missouri.edu. Read one of Dr. Katerndahl’s recent research articles in this issue of TFP.

Report from ALF/NCSC
TAFP members look to the future at conference

TAFP leaders traveled to Kansas City at the beginning of May for the AAFP’s National Conference of Special Constituencies and the Annual Leadership Forum. This year’s conference, held May 1-3, was a little different from previous years. The plenary session focused on the Future of Family Medicine project. For the past year AAFP, along with other members of the Family Practice Working Party, has tried to imagine what the future holds for family medicine through the work of five task forces. The charge of the project is to “develop a strategy to transform and renew the specialty of family practice to meet the needs of people and society in a changing environment.” The conference was an opportunity for attendees to get a sneak preview of the findings of the various task forces and for project leaders to get feedback and expand on their preliminary reports.

The NCSC constituencies — women; minorities; new physicians; international medical graduates; and the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender constituency — discussed, debated and voted on a number of resolutions, which will go to either the Board of Directors or the Congress of Delegates. Among resolutions passed is one that asks for six delegate seats to be shared by the AAFP special constituencies. Currently, the IMG and minority constituencies hold two seats each and the women’s constituency held two seats until last year when the delegation sunset. The new physicians are expected to retain their status. The resolution would be for other constituencies.

Other resolutions were passed regarding a study of the factors involved in the disparity in immunization rates between minority and nonminority children and the creation of a series of Annual Clinical Focus. These programs would study the health care needs of military, ethnic, underserved, under- and uninsured, rural, and urban or inner city families. The IMG constituency recommended that a change be made in the criteria for IMG acceptance into a family practice residency program.

TAFP Parliamentarian, Linda Siy, M.D., of Fort Worth, was the NCSC conference convener. Her job began at the conclusion of the last meeting. Along with a planning committee and an advisory committee, she examined each segment of the conference and sought solutions to past problems. A lot of business occurs at the conference in a very compressed amount of time, so it is important to make things run as smoothly as possible. Siy says the work was a labor of love. “NCSC is perhaps my favorite AAFP meeting because of the wonderful diversity of people and ideas you become exposed to at the meeting,” she says. “Everyone has in common the goal of serving our patients and profession, and we share our experiences with each other in such an open, non-threatening forum.” When asked about the issues that arose this year she responded, “Perhaps the most important issue we dealt with this year was how we envisioned our own representation within the larger family of the AAFP. I felt we had some very mature discussions about this during our Listserve Live program, and developed a thoughtful resolution regarding the issue.” Dr. Siy serves on the AAFP Committee on Special Constituencies and was a delegate from the women’s constituency in the past.

Texas was represented by four NCSC representatives: Sara Tischendorf, M.D., women’s representative; Rosalie Pena, M.D., minority representative; K. Ashok Kumar, M.D., IMG representative; Mary Nguyen-Poole, M.D., new physician representative. Also in attendance were AAFP President James C. Martin, M.D.; TAFP President Robert Hogue, M.D.; TAFP President-elect David Schneider, M.D.; AAFP Delegates C. Tim Lambert, M.D., and Leah Raye Mabry, M.D.; AAFP Alternate Delegates Roland Goertz, M.D. and Lloyd Van Winkle, M.D.; TAFP Treasurer Erica Swegler, M.D.; AAFP Delegate to AMA Dale Moquist, M.D.; and Student Chair Debra Bell.

Changing of the guard at TAFP

TAFP’s new officers will be installed at this summer’s 54th Annual Session and Scientific Assembly in Dallas. The ceremony will take place on July 26, 2003 at the Installation Banquet and Ball. The officers for 2003-2004 will be: David Schneider, M.D., president; Erica W. Swegler, M.D., president-elect; Linda M. Siy, M.D., vice president; Samuel T. Coleridge, D.O., treasurer; and Douglas Curran, M.D., parliamentarian. 

TAFP member takes part in AAFP’s Hometown Radio Project

Douglas Curran, M.D., of Athens, Texas, recently participated in an AAFP project to increase the awareness of the role of prevention in health care. He prepared a brief radio piece on the importance of exercise that was picked up by three local radio stations. Curran is the current Chair of the TAFP Commission on Membership and Member Services and a member of the TAFP Executive Committee. He was selected for this project in part because he participated in a media skills workshop at the most recent TAFP Leadership and Legislative Conference.

Minnie Lee Lancaster, M.D., of Grapevine died April 15, 2003 of an apparent heart attack. A TAFP member since 1968, Lancaster is considered by many to be the matriarch of medicine in Grapevine, according to the Fort Worth Star Telegram. She and her husband, Edgar Lancaster, M.D., moved to Grapevine after they finished medical school at UTMB Galveston and opened the first clinic in Grapevine in 1953. The Lancasters, along with their partner, Carlton Pittard, M.D., started a foundation in 1960, which built the Grapevine Memorial Hospital and Clinic in 1967. They turned the hospital over to Baylor Health Care System in 1981. It is now known as Baylor Medical Center at Grapevine and a soon-to-be-opened six-story patient tower will be named after Ed and Minnie Lee Lancaster.

In addition to opening the first medical clinic in Grapevine and caring for the community for 50 year, the Lancasters raised five children. Dr. Minnie Lee, as she was known, continued to see patients until her death. She is survived by her husband, Edgar Lancaster, M.D., and three of her five children. She was 79.

TAFP morns dedicated doctor

Oliver C. “O.C.” Cooper, Jr., M.D., of College Station, died March 15, 2003. A TAFP member since 1959, Cooper was TAFP Physician of the Year in 1987. He served on the TAFP Foundation Board of Trustees for many years.

Originally from Mississippi, Cooper attended medical school in Tennessee and practiced in Kentucky for five years before moving to Texas with the Air Force. After finishing his two-year stint at Bryan Air Base, he opened his own practice in Bryan and later moved to College Station. He practiced in the Brazos Valley area for 47 years. In 1979 Cooper established the Preceptorship Program in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at Texas A&M University School of Medicine and coordinated the program until 1994. At the annual Preceptorship Appreciation Dinner in March 2003, it was announced that the program would be renamed the O.C. Cooper Preceptorship Program. Cooper also served on the college admissions board at Texas A&M. He helped establish Hospice of Brazos Valley and donated his time to the Health for All Clinic. He served as president of the school board of College Station Independent School District and as a deacon of First Baptist Church of College Station. Dr. Cooper was preceded in death by his wife, Penny and is survived by their three daughters and two sons.

Longtime leader receives high honor

On March 11, 2003, Leonard Paul, M.D., was honored for his lifelong dedication to family practice at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, Texas. A new facility, the Family Practice Center at UTHSC was dedicated in Dr. Paul’s name.

At the reception ceremony, it was also announced that a distinguished professorship was initiated in his name. Over 100 attendees came to the reception to honor Dr. Paul. Guest speakers included Texas Commissioner of Health Eduardo Sanchez, M.D., and Steven Wartman, dean of the medical school at UTHSC. TAFP President-elect David Schneider, M.D., was one of many to speak in honor of Dr. Paul.  

Paul has worked at the University of Texas Health Science Center for 21 years. He was named TAFP Family Physician of the Year in Texas in 1998. Prior to his work in Texas, Paul had a group general practice in Northwest Indiana for 23 years.

“He embodies the spirit of family practice with the leadership skills to run a department,” Sanchez says. “His ability to be a big-picture person as a department leader and a small-picture person one-on-one with patients makes him a great role model.”

Attention TAFP local chapters: to have news from your chapter printed here, please contact Jonathan Nelson at jnelson@tafp.org