News from the 2011 C. Frank Webber Lectureship

Gaining clinical knowledge, advancing the specialty

More than 400 physicians, residents, and medical students gathered at the Omni Austin Hotel at Southpark to attend this year’s C. Frank Webber Lectureship and Interim Session, March 11-12, 2011. In addition to CME lectures and TAFP business meetings, the busy weekend included an ABFM SAM Group Study Workshop, TAFP’s first-ever Legislative Action Day, and the 2011 Texas Conference of Family Medicine Residents and Students.

New this year, TAFP ramped up its communications effort through social media outlets Facebook and Twitter. View the series of tweets from the conference at www.twitter.com/txfamilydocs or enter our hashtag—cfw2011—in the search box at the top of your Twitter browser.

TAFP’s SAM Group Study Workshop was held Thursday, providing an opportunity for diplomates of the American Board of Family Medicine to get credit for the Self-Assessment Module portion of their Maintenance of Certification. Attendees discussed cerebrovascular disease and completed the 60-question knowledge assessment portion of the module. Attendees were then eligible to complete the clinical simulation online to receive full credit.

Also on Thursday, more than a dozen TAFP-member family physicians and general internal medicine physicians from the Texas Chapter of the American College of Physicians participated in TAFP’s inaugural Legislative Action Day. Physicians, representing all areas of Texas, received a legislative briefing from TAFP’s lobby team before heading to the Capitol to meet with their legislators and advance issues important to the specialty.

TAFP CEO Tom Banning and lobbyists Marshall Kenderdine, Dan Hinkle, and Jerry Philips opened the meeting, presenting the top issues for primary care and how the first 60 days of the session had been.

“I feel that now, more than ever before, family medicine is well positioned to make major gains during the legislative session,” Banning told attendees. “This is because of the work we’ve done in past sessions to educate lawmakers on the value of primary care, and to put in place programs to build the primary care workforce.”

Armed with TAFP’s issue briefs, the physicians left the briefing ready to speak to their legislators. Access these issue briefs on the Advocacy Resources page of TAFP’s website, www.tafp.org/advocacy/resources.

The sold-out lectureship on Friday featured CME topics on a range of issues facing practicing family physicians: from diabetes and dementia to joint pain and appropriate utilization of vitamin supplements, plus an ethics lecture from Clare Hawkins, M.D.

TAFP hosted the 22nd annual student and resident conference on Saturday, which combined lectures tailored to future family physicians with an interactive resident-led residency and procedures fair. Morning speakers addressed TAFP member benefits, how to pay off educational debt, and ways to stay a leader. That afternoon, residency programs from around Texas set up booths to promote their programs and show students the full scope of family medicine through hands-on procedure demonstrations. Students practiced simulations of joint injections, ultrasounds, circumcisions, and more.

During TAFP commission, committee, section, and task force meetings on Friday and Saturday, TAFP members discussed topics that touch every aspect of family physicians’ practices, and developed policy that will guide the Academy through the year. At the Commission on Legislative and Public Affairs meeting Friday night, TAFP members listened to a presentation on federal health care challenges from AAFP President Roland Goertz, M.D., M.B.A.; heard a presentation from Marie-Elizabeth Ramas, M.D., on her recently-published policy brief on scope of practice; discussed progress and top issues of the 82nd Texas Legislature; and developed strategies for promoting family medicine in a tough budget session.

Members of the Commission on Public Health, Clinical Affairs, and Research discussed methods to promote tobacco cessation and current recommendations for the pertussis vaccine.

Attendees of the new Section on Communications and Marketing examined the Academy’s current communications plan and discussed how to expand its reach through standing publications, the new Texas Family Docs blog, and other ways. The formation of the section was one of TAFP’s strategic initiatives, created to increase interaction with TAFP members through different communication vehicles, and will continue its work at Annual Session.

The TAFP Board of Directors meeting concluded the weekend when board members heard all of the reports and recommendations from TAFP’s business meetings, and reports from TAFP and AAFP officers and delegates.

Mark your calendars now to join TAFP for next year’s C. Frank Webber Lectureship at the Omni Austin Hotel at Southpark on March 2, 2012. Also plan to join TAFP for its largest symposium, Annual Session and Scientific Assembly, July 27-31, 2011, at the Sheraton Dallas in Dallas, Texas. In the fall, TAFP will host Primary Care Summit – Houston, Oct. 21-23, 2011, at the Westin Oaks, and Primary Care Summit - Dallas/Fort Worth, Nov. 11-13, 2011, at the Westin Galleria Dallas.

Stay connected to TAFP year-round through our social media outlets. Find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/txafp, follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/txfamilydocs, and read and comment on our new Texas Family Docs blog at www.txfamilydocs.org.