Mabry re-elected AAFP Vice Speaker

Leah Raye Mabry, M.D., completed her first term as Vice Speaker of the AAFP Congress of Delegates and was re-elected to a second term during the recent AAFP meeting in San Francisco, Calif. As vice speaker, she worked with Speaker Thomas Weida, M.D., from Pennsylvania to set the agenda and preside over the Congress of Delegates, the governing body of the AAFP. She is also a voting member of the AAFP Board of Directors.

Mabry is a long time leader in Texas and at the AAFP. She is a past president of TAFP and served three consecutive two-year terms as a delegate to AAFP. She is also a registered parliamentarian, making her uniquely qualified for the job.

---

Family medicine faculty recognized as innovators

Congratulations to the finalists of the Second Annual Conference on Innovations in Medical Education, held at the J.J. Pickle Research Campus in Austin, Texas on Oct. 6, 2005. All three groups of finalists represented Texas medical schools’ departments of family medicine.

TAFP member Gurjeet S. Shokar, M.D., and Robert J. Bulik, Ph.D., of the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, received first place for their innovation, “The Design a Case Template,” an online authoring tool that allows faculty to author standardized Web-based cases that can be used in all teaching sites.

Finalists Linda Z. Nieman, Ph.D., and Lewis E. Foxhall, M.D., of the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston presented preventive medical education innovations for diabetic foot screening and foot care and for tobacco screening and smoking cessation counseling. Foxhall is a past president of TAFP.

Finalists Nora Gimpel, M.D., and Mark De Haven, Ph.D., from UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas received recognition for a community-based participatory research training experience for pre-clinical medical students between years one and two of training.

To qualify, participants were nominated by one of the six University of Texas academic health centers. The projects underwent a detailed review process. The Innovations program funds small competitive grants to improve medical education training.

---

Texas physician educators honored

Drs. Rodrigo D. Cantu and Holly Kaufman were awarded the 2005 Pfizer Teacher Development Award by the American Academy of Family Physicians Foundation. The award, given annually to 15 physicians nationwide, honors community-based family physicians who are outstanding part-time family medicine teachers. A 2003 graduate of the UTHSC San Antonio Family Medicine Residency, Holly Kaufman, M.D., is now a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at UT Health Science Center at San Antonio. Rodrigo D. Cantu, M.D. is a 2001 graduate of the CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Family Medicine Residency and practices in San Antonio.

The award recipients receive a scholarship to attend a skill-building program that will further their development as teachers of family medicine. Applicants must be community-based family physicians serving as a preceptor or volunteer teacher of family medicine. They also must be recent residency graduates and members of AAFP. The program is supported by an unrestricted educational grant from Pfizer, Inc.

---

TAFP members receive AAFP degree of Fellow

Twenty TAFP members achieved the degree of Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians during a convocation on Saturday, Oct. 1, in conjunction with AAFP’s 2005 Annual Scientific Assembly in San Francisco. They are: Suzanne Black, M.D.; James Caskey, M.D.; Augusto Castrillon, M.D.; Byron Conner, M.D.; Carl Couch, M.D.; Walter Gaman, M.D.; Joette Gracia, M.D.; James Lee, M.D.; Stephen Nowicki, M.D.; Sandra Oakes, M.D.; Olufunke Odetunde, M.D.; Joel Saldana, M.D.; Richard Scheuring, D.O., M.S.; Amer Shakil, M.D.; Micke Smith, M.D.; Mary Spalding, M.D.; Albert Stephen, M.D.; Todd Thames, M.D.; Jerry Tsao, M.D.; Eliot Young, M.D.

The degree of Fellow, established in 1971, recognizes family physicians that have distinguished themselves through service to family medicine and ongoing professional development. Criteria for receiving the AAFP degree of Fellow consists of a minimum of six years of membership in the organization, extensive continuing medical education, participation in public service programs outside their medical practice, conducting original research and serving as a teacher in family medicine. These TAFP members were among approximately 250 family physicians receiving the degree this year.

---

TAFP member reappointed to medical board

Gov. Rick Perry reappointed TAFP member David E. Garza, D.O., of Laredo to the Texas Medical Board. Formerly called the Texas State Board of Medical Examiners, the board regulates certain licensed health-care professionals and educated consumers on quality health care. Garza and the four others named will serve until April 2011. Those four are: Julie K. Attebury of Amarillo, a financial manager with Happy Horizons Properties; Dr. Lawrence Anderson of Tyler, a dermatologist and managing partner with Dermatology Associates of Tyler; Dr. Jose Manuel Benavides of San Antonio, a clinical professor of medicine at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center at San Antonio; and Paulette Southard of Alice, campaign chair of the United Way of Alice and president of the Alice Chamber of Commerce.

---

TAFP member to be state HIT man

The Texas Statewide Health Coordinating Council named TAFP member Christopher Crow, M.D., to its information technology panel. The Health Information Technology Advisory Committee, mandated during the 79th Legislative session by Senate Bill 45, will develop a long-range plan for the use of health care information technology in Texas. This plan will cover the use of electronic medical records, computerized clinical support systems, computerized physician order entry, regional data sharing and other methods of incorporating information technology to improve patient outcomes and cost effectiveness. “HIT promises to improve the efficiency, cost and quality of health care, but it is very important for physicians to be part of the discussion on how it will be implemented,” Crow says. “I am excited about filling that role and representing my colleagues.” Crow currently works with the Family Medical Specialists of Texas in Plano.

---

Texas members appointed to AAFP posts

Roland A. Goertz, M.D., Texas Delegate to the AAFP Congress of Delegates and past TAFP President, was appointed chair of the AAFP Commission on Governmental Advocacy. He has served on this important commission since 2002. He previously served as member and chair of the AAFP Commission on CME. Also, Goertz announced his candidacy for the AAFP Board of Directors in September.

Five TAFP members were appointed to AAFP Commissions. TAFP President-elect Douglas Curran, M.D., of Athens was appointed to the Commission on Governmental Advocacy. This is his first AAFP commission appointment. He has served on the TAFP Commission on Legislative and Public Affairs for five years and has been chair since 2003.

TAFP Immediate Past President, Erica W. Swegler, M.D., of Keller and Troy Fiesinger, M.D., of Waco were both appointed to the AAFP Commission on Quality. Swegler previously served on the AAFP Commission on Public Health and has served on numerous TAFP committees and commissions. Fiesinger is on the TAFP Board of Directors as well as the TAFP Executive and Nominating Committees.

TAFP Parliamentarian, Kaparaboyna Ashok Kumar, M.D., of San Antonio was appointed to the AAFP Commission on Membership. Kumar previously served as the AAFP IMG Delegate and on the AAFP Committee on Special Constituencies.

TAFP Alternate Delegate, Justin V. Bartos, M.D., of North Richland Hills was appointed to the Commission on Practice Enhancement. A TAFP Past President, Bartos previously served on the AAFP Bylaws Committee.

---

Texas resident elected to Congress of Delegates

Katherine Patterson, M.D., of the Corpus Christi Family Practice Residency Program was elected as a resident representative to the AAFP Congress of Delegates during the National Congress of Family Medicine Residents in Kansas City in July 2005. Patterson has already started her term, serving as alternate delegate during the 2005 Congress in San Francisco, Calif. She will serve as one of the two voting delegates representing residents at the 2006 Congress of Delegates meeting in Washington, D.C. Patterson is a graduate of the University of Mississippi School of Medicine, where she served as student delegate to National Conference for Mississippi, was on the Commission on Membership and Member Services and was Family Medicine Interest Group Regional Coordinator. Patterson enrolled in TAFP in 2003 and is currently the TAFP Resident Chair serving on the TAFP Executive Committee, Commission on Core Delegation and the Commission on Academic Affairs. In 2004, she was elected Resident Chair of the National Conference.

Students and residents from across the nation gather in Kansas City every summer for the National Conference of Family Medicine Residents and Medical Students. During the busy four-day conference, procedural and other training, exhibits and the Student and Resident Congresses occur simultaneously. Elections are held for student and resident members of the AAFP Board of Directors and Congress of Delegates as well as several other offices. Patterson was the only Texas member to be elected this year.