Report from 2009 C. Frank Webber Lectureship

Family doctors unite in Austin

Almost 350 physicians, residents and students gathered at the Hilton Austin Airport to attend this year’s C. Frank Webber Lectureship and Interim Session March 13-14, 2009. The busy weekend was filled with CME lectures and TAFP business meetings.

CME topics mirrored the full scope of issues facing practicing family physicians, ranging from lectures on successful migraine management to implementing a diabetes registry in family physicians’ offices, plus an ethics lecture on “Avoiding the Courthouse: 10 Practice Pitfalls.”

TAFP hosted the 19th annual Texas Conference of Family Medicine Residents and Students Saturday, which combined lectures tailored for future family physicians with an interactive resident-led Residency and Procedures fair. Morning lecture topics concentrated on how to start a new practice and the skills to sustain it. That afternoon, students and residents switched gears as residency programs from around Texas showed students the full scope of family medicine through hands-on procedure demonstrations. Students practiced simulations of joint injections, ultrasounds, circumcisions and others.

During TAFP commission, committee, section and task force meetings, TAFP members developed policy to guide the Academy. The TAFP Foundation Board discussed a more effective way to fund family medicine research. They established a research endowment, which will be funded by a new Family Medicine Research Champion program. At the Commission on Legislative and Public Affairs meeting, TAFP CEO Tom Banning gave an update on the 81st Texas Legislature, now in full swing, highlighting bills of importance to the specialty on real-time claims adjudication, a physician loan repayment program, scope of practice, and Medicaid and CHIP. The Commission on Membership and Member Services approved a new award, the Special Constituencies Leadership award, to honor a special constituent who has demonstrated leadership and service to the Academy and his or her community.

The TAFP Board of Directors meeting concluded the weekend when board members heard all of the reports and recommendations from TAFP’s business meetings. Board members got a special treat as TAFP debuted a video invitation to Annual Session that contained footage from the weekend’s activities. To view it, go to the TAFP website: www.tafp.org. Read the Interim Session Minutes in Brief on page 28.

Mark your calendars now to join TAFP for the next C. Frank Webber Lectureship on March 5, 2010. Also plan to join TAFP for its largest symposium, the 60th Annual Session and Scientific Assembly, July 15-19, 2009 at the Sheraton Arlington Hotel and Arlington Convention Center. In the fall, TAFP will host the 2009 Primary Care Summit Oct. 23-25 at the Westin Oaks hotel in Houston.