Contents tagged with Tricia Elliott

  • President's Letter

    Tags: Tricia Elliott, tafp president, presidents letter, september 2017

    What kind of system do we want?

    By Tricia Elliott, MD

    In his seminal book “The Signal and the Noise,” renowned statistician, Nate Silver, examines the world of prediction, investigating how we can distinguish the truth — the signal— from the noise, which he describes as a universe of ever-increasing information, relatively little of which is useful.

    Any candid observer of the now nearly decade-long effort to reform our health care system will readily admit that the health care debate we’ve been engaged in has generated a lot of noise and useless information for political gain. Our elected leaders, on both sides of the aisle, have been busy creating this noise and are now trapped in a political vise of their own making. They’ve sadly left the public with a binary choice of whose health care solution is better, that of the Republicans or the Democrats.

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  • President's Letter

    Tags: presidents letter, june, Tricia Elliott

    Learning to lead

    By Tricia Elliott, MD

    Greetings Colleagues. I recently had the pleasure of attending AAFP’s National Conference of Constituency Leaders and the Annual Chapter Leader Forum in Kansas City, Missouri, two conferences packed with leadership training and opportunities. As I was returning home, I couldn’t help but reflect on how lucky we are to be part of such an active and engaged community of family doctors. To witness the energy and enthusiasm for learning and networking, to take part in lively debates, and to watch colleagues collaborate to craft policy ideas — the weekend was truly a joy.

    Our Texas chapter was well represented throughout both conferences. We had 17 members attending, seven of whom were first-time attendees to NCCL and ACLF. Again this year, Texas sent a full delegation to NCCL, which means we had an official representative for each of the convening member constituencies: new physicians; women physicians; international medical graduates; minority physicians; and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender physicians.

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  • President's Letter

    Tags: Tricia Elliott, TAFP advocacy, Capitol First Aid Clinic, aafp, John Meigs

    A busy start to a busy year

    By Tricia Elliott, MD

    Greetings colleagues. Regardless of what you think about the first several weeks of 2017, you certainly can’t say they’ve been boring. With the inauguration of a new president and the installation of his administration, the uncertain future for the Affordable Care Act, and the start of the 85th Texas Legislature, we have a lot of big issues to keep up with.

    As it turns out, “repealing and replacing Obamacare” is much easier said than done and anyone who professes to know how the president and Congress will proceed most likely doesn’t. AAFP continues to be an influential resource to policy makers in Washington D.C. In letters to President Trump and to the leadership of the House and the Senate, AAFP has defined its priorities: health care for all, delivery system and payment reform, health care affordability, a national health care workforce strategy that promotes the value of primary care, and the promotion of prevention and wellness.

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