Academy Installs New Officers, Awards Excellence and Crafts Health Policy
at the 56th Annual Session and Scientific Assembly

TAFP’s 56 th Annual Session and Scientific Assembly proved again that when 450 family physicians get together, they can get a lot of work done. This year’s conference was an exciting and dynamic event, full of important policy debates, stimulating panel discussions and first-class continuing medical education. The meeting was held in San Antonio at the Westin Riverwalk and the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center from July 20 to 24.

TAFP’s Annual Session and Scientific Assembly has been billed as the premier family medicine conference in the state, and the 56 th Annual Session definitely lived up to that description. Attendees had the opportunity to earn up to 30 credits of top-quality CME including two sessions that could count as AAFP’s new Evidence-based education. The Academy was thrilled to have two outstanding keynote speakers for the conference as well: obesity expert and the driving force behind America on the Move James Hill, Ph.D., and AAFP President Mary Frank, M.D.

Dr. Frank presided over this year’s installation of new officers at the President’s Gala, held Saturday, July 23. The Academy’s new officers for 2005-06 are: President Samuel T. Coleridge, D.O., of Fort Worth; President-elect Douglas Curran, M.D., of Athens; Vice President Robert Youens, M.D., of Weimar; Parliamentarian K. Ashok Kumar, M.D., of San Antonio; and Treasurer Linda Siy, M.D., of Fort Worth. Click here to read more about your new officers.

More than 100 TAFP members participated in Academy commission and committee meetings to develop health care policy to benefit the patients of Texas and the physicians who serve them. Topics of discussion ranged from public health to managed care issues, legislative initiatives and medical ethics.

Amid the business, learning and fellowship, the Academy took the opportunity to honor some of its outstanding members. Dr. Cayetano E. Barrera of McAllen, Texas, was on hand along with his family to accept one of the Academy’s highest honors, the Family Physician of the Year Award. Dr. Barrera has been practicing medicine at his McAllen clinic since 1968, only a short distance from where his father practiced medicine before him. According to his partners at the clinic, Dr. Barrera “continues to have the energy and work ethic that he seems to have had all his life and he shows no signs of slowing down.”

“To have your colleagues select you from so many deserving physicians, it’s a great honor,” Barrera said. “Now I’ve got to live up to it.”

Dr. Barrera attended Baylor University and the UT Southwestern Medical School in Dallas. After completing a residency in California in 1966, he served in the U.S. Army and was stationed in South Vietnam. After his discharge in 1968, he came back to Texas and opened the medical practice where he continues to work today.

Dr. Barrera and his partners opened the first night clinic in the Valley in 1982 to care for patients who needed to see a physician at night. The Valley Night Clinic is open every night from 6 p.m. to midnight and is staffed by Dr. Barrera and his partners.

He has also served as chief of staff at the McAllen General Hospital and he is one of the co-founders of the UT Residency Program in McAllen. During the 78 th Texas Legislature, Dr. Barrera testified before state lawmakers to aid in the passage of medical liability reform.

A well-respected citizen of the Rio Grande Valley, Dr. Barrera serves as chairman of the board at Rio National Bank and has served as president of many organizations including the Rio Grande Boy Scout Council, the Hidalgo-Starr Counties Medical Society and the McAllen Citizens League. He is currently involved in a movement to erect a statue at the state capitol to pay tribute to the Tejano culture and people.

Sol Dittman, M.D., of Houston, was honored with the 2005 Physician Emeritus award. Each year, physicians with a distinguished history of service are nominated by their patients, peers and colleagues to be distinguished as Physician Emeritus. Dr. Dittman, a graduate of Rice University and UTMB Galveston, practiced in Houston for 56 years before his retirement in 2004. He served two years in the U.S. Air Force Medical Corp stationed in Japan during the Korean War. Dr. Dittman has been a member of TAFP for over 50 years and has been very active in the Harris County Chapter of the TAFP, attending almost every monthly meeting since its inception and serving as president in 1978.

Letters from patients tell of a caring, attentive physician. One patient writes, “In my long life I have never visited a doctor who has been so knowledgeable and so readily available to help when we have required his service.” One patient of 35 years wrote that he and his brother, also a long time patient have discussed the old “idealized version of a lovable country doctor who went about binding up gunshot and knife wounds and delivering babies for a fee of two fryer chickens.” He went on to write, “We decided that Dr. Dittman displays both the kindness and the level of competency we both would like to see in the modern ideal family doctor.”

Olga Duchicela, M.D. of Weimar was named the second recipient of the Texas Academy of Family Physicians Public Health Award. She began a program five years ago to educate children and their families about obesity and its relationship to diabetes and heart disease. The program, called “Healthy High/Healthy Choices” now includes grades 1 through 12 and includes over 1,100 students each school year. Health professionals, educators and volunteers spend a half day to a full day with student creating awareness about the causes of diabetes and hypertension, they also work on how to deal with peer pressure and talk about the benefits of proper nutrition and regular exercise. The high school program also includes speakers to broaden the students’ view of career possibilities beyond their local experiences. Parents are encouraged to come to campus and participate.

Dr. Olga, as she is known, spends countless hours each year lecturing to students, and in preparation and follow up on the program. In his nomination letter, Dr. Robert Youens wrote, “This program is not just about health and nutrition, it is about professionals bonding with students, it is about students becoming empowered with intelligent choices… Dr. Olga is an inspiration to her patients, area students, the community and all who know her.”

State Representative Vicki Truitt of Keller received the Presidential Award of Merit for her continued work to improve the health care delivery system of Texas. TAFP’s immediate past president, Erica Swegler, M.D., presented the award to Rep. Truitt, saying: “This session Vicki took a lead role in defending our Medical Practice Act against attack from non-physicians attempting to expand their scopes of practice. Additionally she lead the fight to develop a new, innovative patient-physician centered delivery model of care for our Medicaid system.

The Academy presented the Patient Advocacy Award to Harvey Kronberg, editor of Havey Kronberg’s Quorum Report, perhaps the most insightful and up-to-date publication dedicated to covering politics in Texas. If it happens at the Capitol, you can bet Kronberg has the inside scoop. His coverage of the Health and Human Services Commissions plans to roll out an HMO-only Medicaid program in the state’s urban areas was instrumental in alerting legislators and the public to the plan’s inherent problems.

TAFP’s Exemplary Teaching Awards went to Darryl White, M.D., of Valley Baptist Medical Center in Harlingen, Texas and Tammy Pon, M.D., of Plano, Texas. The award is modeled after AAFP’s award of the same name and honors individuals with outstanding teaching skills or individuals who have developed and implemented innovative teaching models.

TAFP’s Immediate Past President Erica Swegler, M.D., and her husband, Paul Swegler of Keller, Texas, were named the Philanthropists of the Year by the Texas Academy of Family Physicians Foundation. The award was initiated in 1995 to recognize physicians whose contributions have made a significant impact in fulfillment of the TAFP Foundation mission.

Erica and Paul have been members of the Foundation Board of Trustees for many years and have given so much to Family Medicine. Their generosity and leadership have been crucial to the success of the Foundation’s success.

As long-time monthly donors, they’ve given generously and made efforts to reach out and bring in new donors. One example is the Minnie Lee Lancaster, M.D. and Edgar Lancaster, M.D. Scholarship. Paul and Erica secured a grant from Baylor Health Care System in 2003 to start the ball rolling and then they went to hospital staff meetings in Grapevine and collected money from colleagues in other specialties.

Erica has personally secured donations from pharmaceutical companies to underwrite Foundation events such as the Chocolate Extravaganza. As president this year, Erica used her position to draw attention to the Foundation at TAFP meetings and ask for donations.

Lloyd Van Winkle, M.D., Chair of the TAFP Political Action Committee Board of Directors presented the TAFPPAC award to Walter Wilkerson, M.D., of Conroe.

“I'm sure most of you in the room know Dr. Wilkerson,” said Lloyd Van Winkle, M.D., chair of the TAFP Political Action Committee board of trustees, “but for those of you who do not, let me say he embodies what a family physician is as well as a statesman.” Over 40 years ago, Dr. Wilkerson began the Montgomery County Republican Party and has chaired it ever since, helping elect many members to the Texas House of Representatives, the Texas Senate, U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Senate, the state governorship and many other statewide elected offices.

“Through his political contacts and activism along with the love of his profession he became a champion of public health and chaired the Texas Board of Health, which at the time had oversight of portions of the state's Medicaid program, food and drug safety, indoor air quality, radiation control, emergency management services, disease control and prevention, laboratory services, vital records, health programs for women and children, the WIC nutrition program and the licensing of certain health care facilities and professions. Quite an enormous undertaking,” Van Winkle said.