We Did It...

I wrote this in the Minneapolis airport on my way home from Kansas City following the AAFP's National Conference and our inaugural Family Medicine Leads Emerging Leader Institute. I'm reasonably sure that my body was  depleted of ALL adrenaline by the experience. Not only is NC an inherently high-energy event, but for me it included presentations with our President-Elect Evelyn Lewis&Clark on Family Medicine Cares (FMC), co-presenting with Dr. Yerba Castellos-Lopes on her project for the FMC Resident Service Award, time spent with our Foundation staff in our exhibit hall booth, and time staffing in the FMAHealth booth.

Rest assured that your Foundation was a visible, verbal, and notable presence at National Conference. We were recognized throughout the event both for our sponsorship of Family Medicine Leads Scholarships and by Main Stage speakers who commented spontaneously that giving to the Foundation and FamMedPAC was an "obligation" of leaders in the organization. DONATE TODAY!

2015 FML Emerging Leader Institute Scholars

We also kicked off our inaugural Family Medicine Leads (FML) Emerging Leader Institute. For those of you who may be less familiar with the FML Emerging Leader Institute, it is a major component of Family Medicine Leads, the new Education Signature Program of the Foundation. I was interviewed about the inner workings of the FML Emerging Leader Institute by family physician and blogger Dr. Beth Oller. Rather than repeat all of those details here, I'd refer you to her excellent blog post on the matter from August 12.

We started with a breakfast meeting on Thursday of National Conference, assembling the 30 students and residents to get them oriented, acquainted with one another (and with us) and to express to them the importance of their time in Kansas City. We took group pictures, handed out their certificates, and escorted them into the VIP seating for the opening Main Stage presentation. The theme of Thursday for the FML Emerging Leader Institute Scholars was about being mindful of your past and aware of your present as a pre-requisite for becoming the leader you want to be in the future. My breakfast remarks reflected on the traits in my own family tree that make me who I am as a leader and began to get them thinking about their own stories and plans for the future. 

On Saturday and Sunday we brought the scholars to the AAFP Foundation headquarters in Leawood for, I am convinced, the best leadership development conference around. We started with a welcome from Dr. Henley and a formal inaugural address from me. The address drew on inaugural messages from U.S. Presidents "re-worded" to put them in the context of the FML Emerging Leader Institute.

Neal Sharma & Dr. Jason Marker

From there, I should let the pictures do the talking. We learned together, laughed together, played games, had snacks, toured the headquarters, and ate dinner. Following our meal we had a presentation from Dr. Angee McDaniel from Pfizer about the importance of mending the relationship between industry and the house of medicine, and from Mr. Neal Sharma an influential KC business man who comes from a family of physicians.  Neal spoke about applying innovative entrepreneurial skills in healthcare. Sunday we spent the day preparing the scholars for the projects they will undertake in the months ahead, wished them well, packed them back on the coach bus, and sent them off to the airport.

I know this post can never reflect the rich and robust "feel" of our inaugural FML Emerging Leader Institute, but let me tell you that we (your AAFP Foundation leadership and staff) feel that something deeply important for the discipline of Family Medicine just happened, and we couldn't be happier that it started at the AAFP Foundation. I have a sense that I will look back some day and say, "I was there when..."

President's Desk: Jason Marker, MD, FAAFP

Thanks for checking out our latest blog post!  If you arrived here from the President’s Update email, thanks for that last click that led you here.  If you arrived by another means, we’re glad you’re here to get an update on the AAFP Foundation’s activities and encourage you to check us out on: website, Twitter, and Facebook.

What a winter!  While many philanthropic organizations are hibernating for the winter after the flurry of year-end activities that are typical of fundraising organizations, the Foundation revs into high-gear in January and February.

Mid-January is the so-called “Working Party” meeting.  This year held in Phoenix, it is a meeting of the 8 organizations that make up the “family” of Family Medicine. This year we had a very productive AAFP Foundation Officer’s Strategy Session to make sure we were all on the same page and working toward a clear common goal. We also participated in the broader conversation about the direction of Family Medicine as a specialty to make sure all of the organizations have a shared vision and are avoiding duplication of work.

At the end of the month was the annual Corporate Roundtable meeting.  Held in Clearwater, FL it brings together top leaders of the Foundation, AAFP and our many corporate partners from the medical industry for a 2-day exchange of ideas designed to keep us fresh with the latest updates in our respective areas.  This exchange allows us to work toward common goals.  It was a powerful two days that will help drive decisions for all the attendees in the future.  We truly appreciate our corporate partners  and continue to say thank you the past support.  For any corporate partners reading this, if you have additional feedback about anything you find on our website that you want more information about, please reach out to us.  We want your voice to be heard.

Family Medicine Cares has been a Signature Program of the Foundation for several years.  FMC USA is a grant program supporting free medical clinics around the country.  We treat every grant like it’s the first one we’ve done and we are so proud of the work being done by family docs around America.  In early February, Foundation Treasurer, Dr. Brent Smith visited our latest clinic in Meridian, Mississippi. 

The new organization Family Medicine for America’s Health is up and rolling.  A $22 million promise to America that we are committed to as a specialty.  I have the pleasure of serving with this group.  In fact, AAFP Foundation Past-President Dr. Jane Weida is on the Board of Directors.  As part of this initiative there is a national communications strategy which includes a unified strategic plan with specific action steps for revolutionizing the delivery of health care in the U.S. 

  

Finally, a word about Haiti.  At the end of February I was supposed to be giving a lecture to Haitian medical students about the value of primary care, but I wasn't there.  Why not?  Due to political unrest in Haiti, there has been an escalation of violence, demonstrations, road blockades and kidnappings in and around Port au Prince (our home base and leaping off point or everything we do in Haiti).  In high-level meetings between the Foundation staff leadership and the leadership of our in-country partner Heart to Heart International it was determined that our safety while in Haiti at that time could not be assured to everyone’s satisfaction.  The trip is currently postponed as we follow the events on the ground.  We are already making plans to reschedule when and if we can .  We are also considering our options for our ongoing faculty development commitment to their Family Medicine residency training programs.  We remain hopeful this will be a temporary pause in our work and that we can get back to it as soon as possible.  Thanks to all of you for your ongoing commitment to our Family Medicine Cares International initiative in Haiti.

Well, I think that’s all for now.  I will talk more in my next edition about plans for our Family Medicine Leads Emerging Leader Institute in the summer, about our upcoming Board meeting in May, and about ongoing changes in the field of Family Medicine.  I’m SURE the next blog post I write will happen without snow on the ground…I hope. 

Jason Marker, MD, MPA, FAAFP

President, AAFP Foundation

President's Desk: Jason Marker, MD, FAAFP

Welcome to my first blog post as your 2015 President of the American Academy of Family Physicians Foundation! Some of you just got here from a link in an email about a “President’s Update” – thanks for following that link. Others of you found your way here on your own. Either way, I am pleased to share some brief information about what I see shaping up for 2015.

First off, social media. Here is the information you need about accessing our Facebook page and Twitter feed.

Please “like us” and follow these sites as they will be updated regularly (but I promise not obsessively) throughout the year with information about the Foundation and my activities on its behalf. We have accounts with Instagram and others (even a Foundation Pintrest account!) but I’m over-the-hill technologically speaking (I’m turning 44 this year!) and better stick to the basics. Pinterest, Instagram, Google+, Picasa

For longer exchanges of information, I’ll be using this blog, though we’ll let you know about new posts with a link from an email. If you want to be added to this email list let us know.

As we start the year I want to lay out in broad brush strokes what I think will be the highlights of 2015. There are several, so here they are in tabular form:

• Corporate Roundtable event has been specifically redesigned with corporate feedback in mind to better achieve the goals of information-sharing with these critical partners.
• Our third Family Medicine Cares International trip to Haiti in February (February 21-28) is packed with attendees and will build on past work of community service, patient care, and educational support for that country’s four medical schools and two family medicine residencies.
• We will be launching our super-awesome, action-packed, all-new, this-ain’t-your-grandfather’s, Family Medicine Leads Emerging Leader Institute in the summer. This conference wants to be an innovative two-day leadership skills event, immersing hand-picked medical students and Family Medicine residents in a high-end experience-based opportunity to create new leaders for our specialty. Family Medicine needs more than just a broader pipeline of new physicians, we need a more expansive “leadership pipeline” of creative thinkers - Emerging Leaders who aren’t just thinking outside the box, but who think in ways that ignore that a box ever existed.
• The Foundation will have a robust presence at the first redesigned AAFP annual event, now called the Family Medicine Experience (FMX). This September 29 - October 3 in Denver launches FMX and the Foundation will be found worthy of a place at the table of this new model of “annual meeting”. I’ll hope to see you there.
• The AAFP Foundation will continue its strong leadership within Family Medicine for America’s Health (FMAH) – a strategic plan and communications program for our specialty. AAFP Foundation representatives can be found at all levels of this new entity whose aim is to “re-present” Family Medicine to America as the “must-have” vehicle for better health and as the only possible solution to the ills of the US Healthcare system. I’ll make sure you hear lots more about this as the year progresses.

Well, that’s probably enough for now. My goal is to keep you up-to-date with information about our Foundation and to hope that a tiny bit of my excitement about our future as a specialty rubs off on you. Don’t forget to connect with us on your favorite social media platform! Blessings for a meaningful new year…

Jason Marker, MD, MPA, FAAFP
AAFP President
Private Practice Physician, Wyatt, IN