June 2000 • Volume 6 • Number 6
Outgoing Executive Vice President Robert Graham, M.D., left, and incoming EVP Douglas Henley, M.D., share a laugh during Henley's recent meeting with staff at AAFP headquarters.
I'm terribly excited to be here today. I'm energized. I'm challenged. And I'm as nervous as hell!"
So said family physician Douglas Henley, M.D., of Fayetteville, N.C., after his introduction as the Academy's new executive vice president-designate at the AAFP Annual Leadership Forum April 29 in Kansas City, Mo.
Henley, an AAFP past president who has been in private practice for 20 years, walked with his wife, Mary, to the stage amidst an enthusiastic standing ovation. "Six years ago, when I walked down the aisle of the Congress of Delegates as your president-elect, I thought that would be my peak emotional high," he said. "But no -- this just beats that hands down."
It's a time of great change and opportunity for medicine, Henley acknowledged, but change and opportunity are familiar turf for the specialty, which has always served as a counterculture to the medical establishment.
Grasp the opportunity for change, he urged. "How can we make the principles of family practice the center of a new health care system that's better than the one we have now?"
Henley will become EVP on Aug. 1. He will be the first practicing family physician and the first AAFP past president to serve in the position. The AAFP Board of Directors selected Henley to succeed Robert Graham, M.D., who announced last July his intent to leave the AAFP.
Soon after his introduction as EVP-designate, Henley sat down for an interview regarding his vision for the Academy's future. Highlights of the interview appear below.
Bio bits: Douglas Henley, M.D.
Medical school, family practice residency: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Private practice 20 years in Hope Mills, N.C.
Diplomate, American Board of Family Practice
AAFP Fellow
Active in AAFP since medical school
AAFP president in 1995
Served two terms as AAFP Board chair
FP Report: What made you want to become AAFP's EVP?
Henley: My initial goal as a family physician was to come back to my underserved hometown to meet that need, which I did. But in addition, my 23 years as a volunteer in the Academy allowed me to advance the discipline and impact AAFP policies on the national and state level. Becoming the EVP seemed to be the natural next step -- and an opportunity to bring the perspective of 20 years of private practice to the EVP position.
FP Report: What's your vision for the AAFP? What does the Academy need to do in the next several years?
Henley: First and foremost, we have to remain an ethical medical professional organization, putting patients' interests first before our self-interests. If we don't, we lose our credibility and our ethics. Fortunately, what's good for our patients is usually good for us.
Beyond that, the Academy needs to maintain its strong public advocacy, for patients in regard to public health issues and universal coverage, and for our members in regard to what government does to them. I know what it's like to deal every day with bureaucratic red tape. We should do what we can to eliminate some of that.
AAFP has a very diverse membership. We need to better understand them, so we can prioritize what we do for them and enhance the value of AAFP membership. I think we do a good job, but it's a continuously changing health care environment. We need to be proactive.
FP Report: Isn't information technology another area for proactive thinking?
Henley: Definitely. We need to use advances in information technology to communicate with and provide services to our members and chapters. We need to use it to advocate on behalf of the discipline, our members and their patients. We do need to help members use it.
We must help members improve care with electronic medical records, quality improvement, performance measurement and evidence-based practice. These represent huge changes for most members, especially EMR, but ultimately the changes can make their lives easier and their care better.
CME is another area ripe for proactive thinking. We need to determine the best blend for providing CME, including the Internet. And we definitely need to provide CME on genetics and cultural competency. Genetic advances will profoundly change the way we practice. And the country's ethnic makeup will change dramatically in the next 10 to 15 years, while most members already in practice have not had training in how to interact with patients from different ethnic groups.
FP Report: How should the Academy respond to the three-year downward trend in the number of medical students matching in family practice residency positions?
Henley: We need to move beyond blaming the medical school establishment for the downturn. Can we also dare to look within and challenge ourselves? Are we doing something wrong? What is the quality of our residencies, our curriculum? We need to do this to continue recruiting the best and brightest to join us in this specialty we love.
FP Report: You sound optimistic about the future of the Academy and family practice.
Henley: I am optimistic! There are challenges, yes -- but the Academy has the resources, the people, the knowledge and the experience to help this specialty be as good as it can get. And I continue to firmly believe that family physicians, because of their broad training, always will be adaptable to changing times. If you maintain your focus on being a clinically competent physician with empathy and compassion for your patients, you will do well -- and I think FPs do that better than any other specialists.
FP Report is published by the AAFP News Department.
Copyright © 2000 by American Academy of Family Physicians.
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