Archives
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TAFP calls for all physicians, residents, and medical students be prioritized to receive COVID-19 vaccine
The Texas Academy of Family Physicians echoes the Texas Medical Association and Texas Hospital Association’s call for all physicians, medical students, and residents to be included in the priority group for COVID-19 vaccines.
Our independent, community-based family medicine physicians constitute the foundation of our health care system. These physicians put themselves at risk every day and we depend on them to serve on the front lines of the battle against COVID-19 — screening, testing, and managing the vast majority of patients outside of the hospital. These independent practices and their staff cannot afford to contract COVID-19 and close up shop. People will continue to get sick. Patients with chronic disease still need ongoing care, and many more will seek mental health counseling than ever before as a result of isolation, job loss, and financial insecurities. We cannot afford to lose our primary care workforce.
As more COVID-19 vaccines become available, we must redouble our efforts to ensure that all physicians — including those physicians who are not employed by or affiliated with a hospital or health system — are prioritized for COVID-19 vaccination.
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President's Letter
Blessings, hopes, and new beginnings in difficult times
Inaugural address of the newly installed TAFP PresidentBy Amer Shakil, MD
TAFP PresidentI feel incredibly blessed and honored to be elected as president of Texas Academy of Family Physicians. I recall my first TAFP meeting in the winter of 1998 after I had moved to Dallas and joined the St. Paul Residency Faculty. The following year, I joined the Commission on Academic Affairs and since then, I have hardly missed any TAFP meetings. A year later I also joined the Dallas Chapter of TAFP, where I still serve on the board.
The reason I have been so regular in my attendance to these meetings is none other than the welcoming, supporting, and nurturing environment of TAFP, exemplified by its visionary leadership and staff year after year and meeting after meeting. I was lucky to find great mentors like Linda Siy and Doug Curran, colleagues like Jake Margo and Ashok Kumar, and of course all of our TAFP staff members.
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TAFP 2.0 — Introducing a new organizational structure to enhance member engagement
By Jonathan Nelson and Kathy McCarthy
For many years, a core group of dedicated family physicians have congregated twice each year at TAFP’s annual and interim meetings to sit on committees and conduct the business of the Academy. A frequent topic of discussion has always been how to attract more members to volunteer to serve in this capacity.
As it turns out, there are a finite number of family doctors you can fit around a table in a hotel conference room for a three-hour committee meeting. And there are only so many physicians who can make a three-year commitment to break away from their practices for a few days two times a year to attend those meetings.
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Finding joy in stressful times
By Anticipate Joy
2020 began with such hope. Many entered the year with an expectation for new vision and focus. We never could have predicted that this year would be marked by a health crisis that would tax our medical personnel and resources to unfathomable proportions.
We are not fully aware of the effects of this pandemic on the wellbeing of the physicians and other medical providers who have sacrificed their own health for that of others. In times such as these, fatigue, depression, stress, and burnout are words commonly used to describe the experiences of our medical heroes. Nevertheless, some doctors manage to find joy and hope in their daily experiences. Why is this important?
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