Contents tagged with texas family physician

  • Patient relationships are the treasures of family medicine

    Tags: texas family physician, president, balkcom, physician, patients, relationship

    Tuesday, January 10, 2012 10:00:00 AM
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    By I. L. Balkcom IV, M.D.
    TAFP President, 2011-2012

    It’s just a small, non-descript pin. Its cash value is minimal and if found in someone’s drawer, it would be summarily thrown in the trash while other more prized items would be saved. However, this pin is a treasure to me. I will guard this pin until my time on earth has passed. While cleaning out my drawer I’m sure someone will ask why I kept this.

    The middle of November found me attending a very special event for a young man of 17 years. Luke was receiving his induction as an Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts of America. I had been honored to be chosen to attend the service, as I had attended to Luke since he was a very young child. His mother and father are patients of mine also and I silently cheered for them, beaming with pride at their son’s accomplishment.

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  • 2011 Year in Review

    Tags: texas family physician, 2011, year in review, advocacy, communications, education, tafp foundation, members, leadership

    Tuesday, January 10, 2012 10:00:00 AM
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    2011 was a year of new ideas, initiatives, and projects, and your Academy approached all with the same goal: to unite the family physicians of Texas, equip them with the tools to navigate a changing practice environment, and proactively advance the specialty of family medicine.

    By Kate Alfano

    From the start of the legislative session in January to the 10th ABFM SAM Group Study Workshop in December (and all events in between), TAFP members and staff stayed engaged in their mission. Read on for a review of happenings over the past year.

    Advocacy: Just two weeks after the start of the new year, the 82nd Texas Legislature convened, sending TAFP’s leaders, lobby team, and staff into high gear to advocate on behalf of family medicine’s top concerns: graduate medical education, scope of practice, and physician workforce. Compounding the session was a $4 billion deficit in the 2010-2011 biennium and a $23 billion shortfall for 2012-2013, which threatened all state-funded programs and any proposal containing a fiscal note.

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  • From the editor: Introducing a new look for Texas Family Physician

    Tags: texas family physician, redesign, family physician

    Thursday, October 27, 2011 9:15:00 AM
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    Eleven years ago, when I came on board as managing editor of Texas Family Physician, I was fresh out of journalism school with a love for design and an eye for art, photography, and typography, but no real-world experience in producing magazines. I learned much in those first few issues about the nuts and bolts of magazine production, all the while trying to appear as though I knew something about an expanding range of increasingly complex editorial topics my new magazine was required to cover.

    My first cover story tackled the problems with the financing of graduate medical education – talk about jumping in at the deep end.

    During those first issues, I knew the magazine needed a new look, a form and function that could achieve the news and information focus we wanted to deliver, while keeping the warmth and conversational nature we wished to convey. In 2002, we launched the first redesign of TFP under my direction, and while we’ve worked in each issue since to refine that design, I believe the artistic concept has served the Academy well.

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  • The chance of a lifetime

    Tags: texas family physician, president's letter, balkcom

    Tuesday, October 4, 2011 11:15:00 AM
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    An excerpt from the inaugural speech of TAFP’s new president

    By I. L. Balkcom IV, M.D.
    TAFP President, 2011-2012

    In 1987, as I was graduating from the Columbus medical center’s residency program, I thought I was hot potatoes. We were good. The 12 of us just thought that we were it. I felt like I could do a Caesarean section with a teaspoon. There was no body cavity I couldn’t align. We felt like we could just do it all.

    So, armed with that knowledge, I set off in the world. I happened to be going to a meeting at the Capitol one day, and as I checked in at my hotel, I was puffed up pretty good. I signed in: “Dr. I. L. Balkcom, IV, M.D.”

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