A Look Back

By Rob Ripperda

There was no monkey business going on this year at the Texas Academy of Family Physicians, despite under which animal 2004 may have aligned in the Chinese Zodiac. The year brought another round of success across all TAFP fronts. The Academy found and purchased a new building while keeping up last year’s record-setting pace in the education arena. Thanks to the diligent work of our team, we can count the election cycle a success and once again, TAFP attained the enrollment of every resident in the specialty. As we head into 2005, we’re not feeling too chicken about what lies ahead, here’s a look back at the year.

EDUCATION

TAFP’s Education Department had another tremendous year in 2004, delivering continuing medical education to over 17,378 primary care medical professionals through 717 different programs.

The five annual CME symposia reached 1,385 family physicians over the course of the year and included: TAFP’s 30th Annual Winter Symposium held in Copper Mountain, Colorado attracting 73 physicians; The C. Frank Webber Lectureship and Interim Session held in Austin with 288 in attendance; The PC Update at TMA’s TexMed 2004 welcomed 322 attendees; TAFP’s 55th Annual Session held in The Woodlands had 484 in attendance; and the TAFP Primary Care Summit held in Houston hosted 218. The Academy ended the year with an exciting new event, the Electronic Health Records conference held in The Woodlands with 150 medical professionals in attendance. The response was so overwhelmingly positive that the department is busy planning two EHR conferences for 2005.

PrimeCME continued its tradition of excellence this year with 642 activities that delivered 824 CME hours to over 8,000 attendees in 209 cities across 29 states. The average evaluation for PrimeCME was a 4.62 on a 5-point scale.

To enhance the quality of all live CME events, the department bought an audience response system that allows program customization for specific audiences and more participation at any given locale.

On the Web this year TAFP launched a completely remodeled InterNetCME with the latest in e-learning technology taking the department’s market worldwide. Currently there are 16 courses to choose from for a total of 17 credits of category 1 CME and over 350 students are already earning CME credit anytime, anywhere.

In addition to the launching of the new edition of InterNetCME, the education department is taking a more active approach to the TAFP Web site. All programs were posted on the Web site months prior to their commencement and health care professionals were invited to register online.

The department also increased its participation in joint-sponsored activities this year, providing accreditation for 43 activities that totaled over 71 hours of CME. These programs reached more than 992 primary care physicians and other health care professionals during the course of the year.

ADVOCACY

For TAFP’s Legislative Affairs division it was another extremely busy and successful year. The staff worked hard on the regulatory front with the Texas Health and Human Services Commission and the Texas Department of Health while those agencies began restructuring as required by HB 2292. The legislative staff was also heavily involved in the successful redrafting of the State Board of Medical Examiners rules on physician preceptorship issues.

Aggressive efforts to strengthen TAFP’s position within organized medicine and outside of it were carried out by implementing and pursuing strategic partnerships with key organizations. TAFP spearheaded the first-ever strategic planning session of the Primary Care Coalition in June to help facilitate and identify shared goals of the three specialties. The Academy also joined forces with the largest advocacy organization representing small and independent businesses nationwide, the National Federation of Independent Business. This strategic alliance will ensure family physicians a strong voice within the business community.

“Budgetary and health care related issues will likely dominate the 79th legislative session,” says Tom Banning TAFP’s Director of Legislative Affairs. “This is evident by the sheer number of health related interim studies that include: Medicaid and CHIP funding, [graduate medical education] financing, workers’ comp reform, refining managed care statutes, and various public health initiatives, not to mention the on-going debate over public school financing and the sunset of the Texas State Board of Medical Examiners and other allied health boards.” Across the state, hearings were held and family physicians testified to ensure that the concerns of the specialty and its patients were addressed. TAFP is geared up and ready for the 79th Texas Legislature.

The TAFP Political Action Committee had another banner year this election cycle, endorsing the winning candidate in all but two contested Texas House of Representatives and Texas Senate general election races. TAFPPAC honored the Red River Chapter with the TAFPPAC Award at this year’s Annual Session for its generous contribution of $10,000 to help pass Proposition 12.

Throughout the year, TAFP continued to build on past successes in communicating with members, as well as with the public. Texas Family Physician provided insightful coverage of issues important to family physicians including the Future of Family Medicine Project, EHRs, and Maintenance of Certification. As always TAFP’s Web site was a work in progress, as we continue to make it easier to navigate and provide more detailed information on all of our member services. Members will continue to receive the regular electronic QuickInfo newsletter and a weekly compilation of health-care-related news clips from across the state all year round.

TAFP’s research network called the Statewide Primary Care Ambulatory Research and Resource Consortium, or SPARRC, held workshops this year at TAFP’s Interim and Annual Session meetings. SPARRC workshops are open to any member interested in incorporating office-based research into their practices. The network has just completed recruitment on its next study. David Katerndahl, M.D., of San Antonio will serve as principal investigator in a study of diabetes and depression.

It was a tremendous year for the TAFP Foundation that saw the largest disbursement of scholarship funds in its history. At the TAFP Annual Session in July, seven medical students were honored with scholarships during the general session. Foundation President, Stephen Benold, M.D., presented the following scholarships: John Redman of UTMB Galveston received the Weldon G. Kolb, M.D., Medical Student Scholarship; Martha Gutierrez of UTMB Galveston and Delfino Garza and Patricia Santistevan of UTHSC San Antonio all received the Valley Chapter Scholarship; Winston Liaw of Baylor College of Medicine and Emily Dickinson Briggs of UT Houston received the Harold T. Pruessner, M.D., Medical Student Scholarship; and Eric Lee, a recent graduate of UT Southwestern, received the first-ever South Texas Chapter Scholarship. In addition, Emily Meyer received the S. Perry Post, M.D., Medical Student Scholarship and Michelle Babb-Tarbox received the Norma Porres, M.D. and Felipe Porres, M.D., Medical Student Scholarship.

This year’s TAFP Foundation Philanthropist of the Year Award went to Dr. Roland Goertz, M.D., of Waco. Dr. Goertz’ name will be forwarded to the AAFP as a candidate for the National Philanthropist Award.

LEADERS and MEMBERS

TAFP’s new officers were inducted at this year’s Annual Session. The inductees included: Erica W. Swegler, M.D., President, Samuel T. Coleridge, D.O., President-elect, Douglas Curran, M.D., Vice President, Linda Siy, M.D., Treasurer, and K. Ashok Kumar, M.D., Parliamentarian. This event marked the close of a great year as president for F. David Schneider, M.D., who now holds the title of TAFP Immediate Past President.

The Academy also took the opportunity to honor some of its outstanding members at this year’s Annual Session. Thomas David Greer, M.D., of Henrietta received the Family Physician of the Year Award; C.L. Montgomery, M.D., of Lubbock was honored with the 2004 Physician Emeritus award; Eduardo Sanchez, M.D. became the first recipient of the TAFP Public Health Award; David Katerndahl, M.D., of San Antonio received the Presidential Award of Merit; William K. Mygdal, Ph.D., received a Resolution of Commendation and Recognition for developing the Texas Family Medicine Faculty Development Center in Waco; and Lynda DeArmond, M.D., of Waco received the first-ever TAFP Exemplary Teaching Award.

At the recent AAFP Congress of Delegates meeting in Orlando, Florida, outgoing Texas Delegate, Leah Raye Mabry, M.D., won her bid to become Vice Speaker of the AAFP Congress of Delegates. The Academy worked hard on the campaign and is very excited to have such great representation at the national level.

To date, TAFP has 3,693 active members and 5,367 total members. TAFP again attained 100 percent resident enrollment for the 2003-2004 school year, and of all the eligible family physicians on the membership rolls, 65 percent are members of the Academy.

TAFP’s 14th conference for students and residents was another success. Over 60 students and residents attended the March 13-14 conference. TAFP leaders spoke on parliamentary procedure, legislative advocacy, financial realities of being a family physician and leadership. Plans for the 2005 conference are already underway with an exciting addition, TAFP is inviting residents to demonstrate simple procedures to medical students.

BACK AT HEADQUARTERS

The search is over — TAFP has a new home for a new year. The administration department headed the search and acquisition of the new TAFP headquarters, a 20,000 square foot two-story building in north Austin. The staff is preparing the building to house the Academy and we plan to move in before spring.

TAFP finished out 2004 and heads into 2005 with the following cast of characters:

Jim White, Executive Director

John Ashbaugh, Director of Administration

Tom Banning, Director of Legislative and Public Affairs

Jennifer Burns, Symposia Planner

Raif Calvert, Assistant Director of Legislative and Public Affairs

Laurel Catlin, PrimeCME Planner

Ellen Harrison, Business Development

William Jackson, Information Technology Manager

Jo Ann Kindinger, Director of Education

Rachel Kohls, PrimeCME/ CME Symposia Planner

Rebecca Krauss, PrimeCME Planner

Kathy McCarthy, Director of Member Services

Jessica Miley, CME Coordinator

Robert Montoya, Financial Manager

Nathan Moore, Marketing Associate

Jonathan Nelson, Communications Specialist

Paige Newman, Membership Coordinator

Esmond Nwokeji, Education Assistant

Mary Petachenko, Receptionist

Rob Ripperda, E-Learning Specialist