Take ownership in your Academy

Siy, center, is installed as the new president of TAFP at this year’s Annual Session. AAFP Board Member Judith Chamberlain, M.D., right, presides over the installation ceremony with President-elect Robert Youens, M.D., far right, and Past President Douglas Curran, M.D., left, looking on.

It is an honor for me to serve as President of the Texas Academy of Family Physicians, and I’d like to thank the Board of Directors for their vote of confidence. I want to also thank the many members and staff of this organization for their years of support as I traveled on this path of leadership. In particular, the past presidents I have had the privilege of serving with on the executive committee include Justin Bartos, M.D.; Robert Hogue, M.D.; David Schneider, M.D.; Erica Swegler, M.D.; Tim Coleridge, D.O.; and Doug Curran. M.D.

We all have our special mentors in our careers, and I’d like to especially thank the late Arnold Krause, M.D., who encouraged my involvement in the Academy over 12 years ago, and was always my cheerleader and guide as I became familiar with both the national organization and the state chapter. He was the one to first nominate me to an officer position at the local chapter level, and from every step since, he was there to nominate me again!

We lost Dr. Krause nearly two years ago, and he continues to be missed at our meetings. Our Tarrant County Chapter has named our scholarship fund after Dr. Krause, and I can’t think of a more fitting honor for a man who worked tirelessly to promote the specialty.

Fifty percent of the physician workforce in Texas is comprised of salaried physicians such as myself. I am employed by a multi-specialty physician group at UNT-Health Sciences Center and have practiced at the JPS Health Network’s Community Health Center−Northeast in Bedford for the past 12 years. I spend more than 95 percent of my time in direct patient care. I also teach medical students in the office and serve as our clerkship site director for the third-year family medicine rotation for students at UT Southwestern.

My passion is caring for the underserved and indigent population. I sought a residency program to enable me to do just that, and ended up staying with JPS to work in the community. Like many community health center physicians, I enjoy the challenges of this population, especially the diversity of patients we serve. I thought my practice in Hawaii during a stint of locums served a diverse population, but my current practice in the mid-cities of the DFW Metroplex has proven more diverse than anywhere I’ve been.

During my service at the national level in AAFP, I have met physicians with all different types of practices, and I can tell you that the face of family medicine is changing. More and more you meet physicians who have unique practices such as shared-practice opportunities, mobile offices, or focused practices on women’s health, geriatrics or sports medicine, to name a few. But the fundamental principles of primary care permeate each family physicians’ practice, be it rural, urban, military, academic or the small-town country doctor. Well over half of the residents in family medicine in Texas are international medical graduates, and over half of the residents and new physicians are women. Our organization must change to meet the changing needs of our membership, as well as the changing demographics of the patients we serve.

The coming year will be one of big change for our Texas Academy. We are losing an icon, Executive Director Jim White, whose guiding presence has shaped our organization into one of the best in the country. In this issue of TEXAS FAMILY PHYSICIAN, we take a look back at where we came from and the many milestones we’ve encountered during Jim White’s 25-year tenure.

We have been fortunate and have enjoyed many successes with Jim, but I look forward to the leadership of our current staff, with our new chief executive officer, Tom Banning, at the helm. I have met with him and Kathy McCarthy, our new chief operating officer, on several occasions and I can tell you that we are in good hands! It will be a time of restructuring within our Academy as we maximize the talents of our existing staff and look to add new staff with specific skills needed for our organization.

My goal this year is to develop a new strategic plan for our Academy. We are well overdue to take a critical look at the direction of our TAFP and determine where we want to head in the next three to five years. As a membership organization, this task has required the input of you, our members.

In September we convened a work group of members to help develop our strategic plan. Results of the recent member survey were instrumental in this process. The areas of advocacy, education, communications, operations and member services were addressed in detail.

Our TAFP staff worked hard to develop goals for their specific departments, and the collaborative effort between staff, our membership and volunteer leaders resulted in a viable and exciting new strategic plan for our future. The resulting roadmap for the Academy will be featured in our next magazine.

I cannot stress enough the importance of your input to the direction our Academy takes in the coming years. In the past, you have told us that legislative advocacy is important to you and your practice, and we have focused our efforts in this arena with many successes. I expect us to continue our strong legislative advocacy policies, and continue to partner with our primary care colleagues and the Texas Medical Association to accomplish shared goals.

Your participation in this process is also critical to our success. Become a key contact for your local legislator, and contribute to the TAFPPAC. Your PAC dollars help us by opening doors at the Capitol and getting our message to those who need to hear it.

Increasingly, government regulations influence the way physicians practice medicine. Government controls business taxes, insurance policies and even our medical licenses. We cannot afford to lose sight of these influences, and we must remain vigilant in the legislative arena. During the legislative sessions, you can participate in TMA’s First Tuesdays at the Capitol or volunteer as Family Physician of the Day in the Capitol Health Clinic.

Two years ago, AAFP finally established a national political action committee for family medicine, and its success story is just beginning. I ask you to consider a donation to FamMedPAC as well, so that we can continue to work on the national level to address concerns such as Medicare and med­­ical liability reform, and to increase the visibility of family medicine in Washington, D.C.

CME continues to be an identified need of our membership, but the delivery of the CME opportunities and the topics offered is changing. What would you like to see offered? Tell us your needs, and we will make every effort to meet them.

We are excited about our newest venture into CME, the acquisition of the National Procedures Institute. We know that procedures training is a need among our membership, as well as family physicians and residents across the nation, and we are ready to continue the high-quality nationwide workshops and seminars NPI has offered in the past, with the assistance of its founder, John Pfenninger, M.D. The purchase of NPI is a big deal to our Academy. With TAFP as the managing partner, along with AAFP and the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine, we hope to take NPI to new levels while continuing the high-quality products NPI has always delivered.

Finally, we must foster future generations of family physicians who will take our place one day. Become a mentor for that young person with the talents and desire to become a physician. Encourage the medical students you meet to become primary care doctors and demonstrate that it is a rewarding, viable career. Nurture the residents you encounter to continue in primary care and give hope to their future in practice. After all, these very people will one day care for our patients and for us.

Our TAFP Foundation supports students and residents with scholarships, travel funding and leadership training. The Foundation manages 22 separate scholarship funds, and has awarded 79 individual scholarships since 1994, totaling over $119,000. Eighty-two percent of those scholarship recipients are in family medicine. The Foundation also supports primary care research, and funds several projects every year, many of which go on to national publications. There are currently 10 Foundation-funded research projects underway. The Foundation’s Research Grants Committee has developed their own strategic research plan, which outlines specific tasks needed to increase the research activities in our state. We must continue to support the Foundation; it is vital to our future. Becoming a monthly donor to the Foundation is a painless way to support these worthy projects and invest in our specialty’s future.

As we start this year of change, my charge to you is to get involved! Make your voice heard to your Academy, to the Legislature and to the future generations of family physicians. I’ve outlined several ways you can do this and my hope is that you will take up the charge. Thank you to those who have volunteered to serve on TAFP committees, commissions and sections this year, and thank you to all our chairs who have volunteered to lead.

We are a membership organization, run by volunteer members and leaders on the Board of Directors and Executive Committee. I expect great things from all of you. Together, we can make the Texas Academy of Family Physicians continue to live up to the legacy it has built, and evolve into the Academy our membership needs. Thank you once again for your confidence in me and I look forward to working with you.