 December 2002 • Volume 8 • Number 12 |
 David Satcher, M.D., Ph.D., left; Louis Sullivan, M.D., center; and Warren Jones, M.D., exchange views after their panel presentation at the Nov. 1 opening of the National Center for Primary Care. |
The nation now has a federally funded home for primary care research, training and policy analysis -- focusing especially on minority and poor populations. The Academy helped celebrate the opening of the National Center for Primary Care at Morehouse School of Medicine, Atlanta, on Nov. 1.
"The research and training going on here are invaluable," said AAFP Board Chair Warren Jones, M.D., of Ridgeland, Miss. "Your future is bright. Your work will help illuminate the path for all of us."
Former Surgeon General David Satcher, M.D., Ph.D., a family physician, directs the center. "The gap between what we know and what we do in public health is lethal to Americans, if not the world," said Satcher. "We only spend 2 percent of our budget for population-based preventive care -- that's an example of a major gap between what we know and what we do. We don't have parity of access to mental health services. We discriminate in the funding of mental health services in most states -- that's a gap between what we know and what we do."
Satcher insisted, "In a nation as prosperous as ours, there must be a way to bridge the chasm between minority and majority, rich and poor."
That's what the center is all about. It's the brainchild of former HHS Secretary Louis Sullivan, M.D., president emeritus of Morehouse School of Medicine. He convinced Congress to fund the center's creation through the Public Health Service's Office of Minority Health to the tune of $15 million. The school found donors to ante up another $5 million; the 106,000-square-foot building is paid for.
Ongoing projects
The center inherits several projects the school has nurtured. For example:
Clinical research network. Some 146 community health centers in eight southeastern states already collaborate with the new center in health disparities research. In one aspect of the work, physicians are using guidelines for treating asthma and are evaluating the guidelines' impact on patients' outcomes. "In time, we'll develop a national network for primary care research, including rural areas," said Satcher.
Minority faculty development. In 1992, the nation had 52 African-American teachers in its medical schools. Since then, Morehouse School of Medicine, a historically black institution, has trained more than 100 African-American physicians for faculty roles, said FP George Rust, M.D. He started the faculty development program, then based in the family medicine department and now located in the center.
Cultural competency. "Patient populations are changing for many family physicians," said Rust. The center offers training programs in cultural competency for practicing physicians and physician administrators. "Learning to show respect for other cultures -- seeing diversity as a strength instead of a challenge -- is useful in one-on-one doctor-patient relationships and in managing teams of professionals from different cultures," said Rust.
Mental health care
"Something I wrote about when I was surgeon general -- mental health -- is very important here at the center," said Satcher, the first surgeon general to issue reports on mental health.
"We know African-Americans are more likely to turn to their church than their doctor to deal with a mental health problem. There's a very high level of depression in African-Americans, especially in women, but the diagnosis is often missed. It has a lot to do with the difference in culture of the physician and patient," said Satcher. "Asian-Americans are more likely to completely deny the problem because in their community, it's not acceptable to have a mental health problem. So they're least likely to seek outpatient treatment."
The center will build on recent studies of relationships between mental health problems and diseases such as heart disease, cancer and HIV/AIDS.
"Until primary care physicians are more involved in early diagnosis of mental health problems and management of mental health care, we're not going to get a handle on the mental health care problem in the country," said Satcher. "There aren't enough psychiatrists. Also, psychiatrists don't get people into systems of care -- primary care physicians do that. They're the ones out there who see people who are complaining of headaches and backaches, but who are depressed."
Center-AAFP interface
The National Center for Primary Care and the Robert Graham Center (established by the AAFP in Washington) are exploring ways they might study Medicaid data sets on maternity care, focusing on care delivered by FPs and GPs. "We'll propose looking at cost, birth outcomes and prenatal care," said Ed Fryer, Ph.D., analyst at the Robert Graham Center.
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"We want to have input into laws and acts and
budgets." |
"Medicaid covers one-third of the births in this country," said Rust. "We're talking with the Graham Center about how to write articles that will make sense of high rates of low birth weight and infant mortality, as well as access to prenatal care."
Addressing similar aspirations of the National Center for Primary Care and the Academy, Jones said the new center's mission -- promoting excellence in community-oriented primary care and optimal health outcomes for all Americans -- is "a worthy and noble goal we share."
He accented AAFP's commitment to seeking access to care for all Americans: "More than 41 million Americans do not have health insurance. That's 41 million people who live in fear of a catastrophic accident that could leave their family bankrupt, 41 million who regard preventive health care as a luxury."
Policy impact
"We want to be part of the national dialogue on health policy, especially as it relates to primary care and to disparities in health," said Satcher. "We're going to write papers about it; have conferences; impact discussions at the local, state and federal level. We want to have input into laws and acts and budgets. We want to be viewed as the public health scientists that are providing input based on our experience. We want to make life better for primary care physicians whether it has to do with malpractice insurance or with being adequately reimbursed for what you do."
Republicans seized control of the U.S. Senate in the November elections. What difference will it make to family physicians and their patients to have Republican leadership in the White House and both chambers of Congress?
"As they campaigned this year, President George Bush and some senatorial candidates talked about trying to do three things related to health care: to push through a tax credit for the uninsured; to look at various problems with Medicare, including the need for seniors to have prescription drug benefits; and to come forward with some type of federal liability reform, including a cap on noneconomic damages," says AAFP President James Martin, M.D., of San Antonio.
"We may see some action on these three legislative issues next year," Martin says. "We now need to identify congressional leaders and staff members at the White House who will help us move our agenda."
The two parties have very different positions on prescription drug benefits and liability insurance reform, cautions Martin. However, he says Republicans have not been "big government," so they may help medicine free itself from some burdensome federal regulations.
"I hope the Republicans will take a more jaundiced view of some of the onerous regulations we're dealing with right now," Martin says.
When it comes time for medical students to declare their specialty choices, there may be some truth to the old adage, "It's not what you know, but whom you know."
True, there are those who are attracted from the get-go to the tremendous breadth of family practice. For them, it seems, the challenge of mastering a far-flung range of care services and skill sets is an opportunity they will relish.
But for those less certain of their ultimate career path, positive interactions with family practice mentors, especially in a clinical setting, can turn the tide in favor of the specialty.
That's just one of the findings from an Academy-sponsored study examining the factors influencing specialty choice decisions. The research was commissioned in 2000 in response to an overall drop in family practice residency match numbers and a decline in the percentage of U.S. medical school graduates choosing family practice.
The study, conducted by the University of Arizona, Tucson, consisted of three elements:
a comprehensive literature review dating back to 1993, the first of four consecutive years in which record-breaking numbers of family practice residency positions were filled;
comparisons of the 12 medical schools showing the greatest decrease in students choosing family practice with the 12 schools showing the greatest increase, including surveys of the department chairs and faculty; and
surveys of nearly 3,000 graduates of family practice, internal medicine and pediatric residencies, as well as matched samples of nonprimary care residency graduates.
The first discussion of results appeared in the August Academic Medicine. The article, "Lessons Not Learned From the Generalist Initiatives," noted that of the three traditionally recognized primary care specialties -- general internal medicine, general pediatrics and family practice -- analyses of factors thought to predict specialty choice have consistently proved to be more accurate for family practice than for the other two specialties.
Translation? Variables likely to lead students to choose family practice, such as a rural background or lower socioeconomic status, can be identified with a significant degree of accuracy in applicants to medical schools.
Moreover, the Arizona research spoke volumes about aspects of the medical school experience itself that influence specialty choice. Two characteristics, in particular, leapt out: A student's stated career goal before medical school admission did not predict selection of family practice, although stated choice after admission did; and students recruited to family practice after admission comprised the largest group entering the specialty.
According to FP Nancy Dickey, M.D., president of Texas A&M University, Bryan, it's something "we" do to "them."
"I think we have some very hard work to do, and we need to do it on a very short timeline," says Dickey. "What is it that we do when we take on these idealistic youngsters? I see it in the first six months to a year, year and a half of medical school. These students espouse and act on all of the things we want them to be and do. They are generous; they are compassionate; they are committed; they are hard-working ... but somehow between admission and the end of their third year, they have become much like some of the mature members of their profession -- cynical, jaded and somewhat less compassionate."
It's not just physicians within the academic system who have the potential to impact students' maturation and decision-making, says another FP educator. Positive role-modeling is up to each member of the specialty, says Richard Homan, M.D., dean of the Texas Tech University School of Medicine and the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Lubbock.
"We play a pivotal role," says Homan. "Patients trust us. We need to promote that more. I think the family physicians who are out there are the best possible advertisement for the specialty."
Go to the AAFP Web page at http://www.aafp.org/fpr/20021200/student.html to review steps that family medicine organizations are likely to take in response to the survey results.
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Many physicians are unacquainted with vaccinia, the smallpox vaccine. After all, routine smallpox immunization ceased 30 years ago.
That's why the CDC has created a pamphlet on smallpox vaccination methods and reactions. The pamphlet is chock-full of information, including step-by-step instructions on administering the vaccine; contraindications for those who receive the vaccine, as well as their potential contacts; reaction timeline; and adverse reactions.
Go to http://www.aafp.org/btresponse.xml to download the pamphlet from the AAFP Web site. The pamphlet can also be obtained by calling the Academy's order department at (800) 944-0000 and requesting item #970. Additional in-depth information is available by visiting http://www.bt.cdc.gov/training/smallpoxvaccine/reactions.
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In this interview, AAFP President James Martin, M.D., of San Antonio shares his interests and hopes. He focuses on the Future of Family Medicine project, political advocacy and student interest in the specialty.
You chair the leadership committee for the Future of Family Medicine project. What's the project all about?
It's a once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform and renew our specialty.
We've commissioned focus groups and more than 1,000 interviews to get input on the role of the family doctor today, what we need to do differently to meet people's needs and how our education needs to change.
What did the focus groups say?
Here's a few things our focus groups taught us:
Family physicians are confident about their own contributions to patients' lives, but they're worried that the institutional value of the specialty hasn't been well established or marketed.
Most subspecialists believe in the importance of family practice.
What did the interviews show?
Here's some early analysis from the interviews with family physicians, patients and others:
What do family physicians want changed? Reimbursement, public opinion about the specialty, managed care, paperwork and having insurance companies dictate policies and procedures.
The greatest sources of satisfaction to family doctors are making a difference in people's lives, bonding with their patients and seeing a variety of patients. No day is ever the same as the one before.
In the early 1960s, Americans said they wanted a personal physician. What they wanted, we've become.
By next fall, the project should develop major proposals about our specialty.
How can AAFP members plug into the Future of Family Medicine project?
They should go to our Web site: http://www.futurefamilymed.org. Project task forces are studying topics like education, systems of care and communicating the FP's role. This spring, the task forces will begin posting their reports online. We need Academy members to comment on the reports.
Is there any connection between the project and your interest in legislation?
Well, the interviews showed that patients have high regard for their family physicians. The company analyzing the interview results can't believe we're not using that high regard in legislative efforts. The company told us, "Your humility is messing you up."
As the project's data analysis unfolds and as the Board of Directors examines options this fall for expanding AAFP's political power, we'll begin to tap patients' interest in matters that affect their own health care.
How do you see patients becoming involved in advocacy?
We might have flyers in our reception areas saying, "Ask your family doctor about legislation that will make a difference in your health care." We want to harness the clout of about 100 million voters we care for.
It will be important to identify strategies that work at the state level, then move to the national. The Texas AFP has had some God-blessed successes. In the mid-1990s, the legislature told the medical schools to identify and admit students more likely to seek primary care and rural practice. We know that when we have older, more mature kids from rural areas, they'll go back to the rural areas to practice. But we needed the legislature's push to start getting the right raw material into the medical schools to begin with.
What do you do in San Antonio to turn kids on to family practice?
We've asked high school counselors to identify kids with ability. We bring them to our residency clinic, put them in white coats, have them shadow us. We let them know scholarships are available to help them through the seven or eight years after college. To most of the public, especially the underserved, being a family doctor is still the golden apple. We've got to put it within reach.
At press time, Congress was considering a technical measure allowing HHS to alter the formula for the Medicare fee schedule and prevent physicians' fees from dropping 4.4 percent for 2003. Following the 5.4 percent drop for 2002, you may be wondering what your options are for participation in Medicare.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services may extend the deadline for altering your Medicare participation status beyond Dec. 31, and it may be best to make your participation decision in late December (or later, if the deadline shifts). Without suggesting which way to go, the Academy wants to remind you of these options:
Being a participating physician. You may sign a participation agreement and accept Medicare's allowed amount as payment in full for all your services to Medicare patients. Typically, the allowed amount is the 80 percent Medicare pays, plus patients' co-payment of 20 percent. The Medicare allowed amount is 5 percent higher for participating physicians than for nonparticipating physicians.
Being a nonparticipating physician. You may charge your Medicare patients up to about 9.25 percent more than the Medicare allowed amount for participating physicians. However, your total revenue from sources such as Medicare and patient co-payments might not exceed your revenue as a participating physician, given factors including collection costs and bad debts.
Using private contracting. You may submit an affidavit to Medicare, agreeing to opt out of any Medicare payments for two years, and may contract with all your Medicare patients for them to pay you outside of Medicare. Under private contracting, there is no limit on what a physician may charge a Medicare patient.
For details about these options, go to http://www.aafp.org/mcareoptions.xml.
 Warren Jones, M.D. |
 Douglas Henley, M.D. |
The Physicians With Heart airlift sets a
new record -- pharmaceuticals and medical supplies valued at nearly $15 million
(U.S. wholesale value) are delivered in a two-part airlift to Moldova. The
Academy is a partner in this annual project. 
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 Virgilio Licona, M.D. |
The new AAFP smallpox policy is highlighted during a CDC
community forum in St. Louis on smallpox and its bioterrorism potential. The
AAFP policy embraces the 2001 CDC plan but goes one step further, recommending
vaccination of "persons at the federal, state and local levels acting as
smallpox response team members who would be called upon to investigate smallpox
cases and contain outbreaks." By fall, the CDC issues mass smallpox vaccination
guidelines.  Richard Roberts, M.D., J.D. |
The Medical Journal of Australia publishes the first
international study of primary care errors. The study, coordinated by the
Robert Graham Center in Washington, uses data from AAFP's National Network for
Family Practice and Primary Care Research, as does the U.S. study published
this fall. 
Academic Medicine publishes a review of the
specialty's problems and prospects, a study from the Robert Graham Center.
 Standing on the farmland that he's mortgaged to save his practice, Ronald Johnson, M.D., says he's been hurt by declining Medicare payments. About one-third of Johnson's patients are on Medicare. Stories throughout the year have focused on the plight of physicians such as Johnson. |
 Jeffrey Cain, M.D., who helped found Tar Wars, defends it at an Assembly Town Hall meeting on budget reduction. The Congress of Delegates voted for the Academy to keep funding Tar Wars until external funding is secured. |
 Cynthia Romero, M.D., addresses the Congress of Delegates after being acclaimed the AAFP Board's first member representing new physicians (see October). |
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration last month rejected a petition to restrict resident duty hours, choosing to rely instead on the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education to address the issue. The petition was filed in April by the consumer watchdog group Public Citizen, the American Medical Student Association and the Committee of Interns and Residents.
The petition asked OSHA to impose a mandatory 80-hour workweek, one day off per week and shifts no longer than 24 hours. To read about the petition, go to http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/print_release.cfm?ID=1239.
The request was based on data linking long work hours to depression, motor vehicle crashes and adverse pregnancy outcomes. The data indicate that remaining awake for more than 24 consecutive hours produces cognitive deficits equivalent to those resulting from a 0.1 percent blood alcohol level, illegal for driving in most states.
Public Citizen contends that the ACGME's voluntary standards fail to adequately protect residents and their patients. The new proposed ACGME guidelines permit a 10 percent increase in hours if a residency can provide an "educational rationale" supporting the increase. Additionally, the ACGME can exempt entire specialties from compliance if national representatives of those specialties can demonstrate that residents cannot complete their educational activities without working more hours.
Furthermore, says Public Citizen, the ACGME has failed to enforce its current work hours guidelines. The council's new proposal makes no allowances for public disclosure of violations, and no civil penalties can be imposed against violators, an option if OSHA were to regulate.
Most of the points in the proposed ACGME standards jibe with the AAFP's evolving duty hours policy. The Academy encourages some flexibility to adapt work hour guidelines to the clinical and educational needs of individual residency programs while protecting patient care and safety.
The way family practice resident Janet Hurley, M.D., of Tyler, Texas, sees it, that flexibility needs to extend even beyond the level of the individual residency. To really get at the issue, she notes, you've got to distill it down to the individual call level.
"Not all call is the same," says Hurley. Often, she notes, where a particular resident is in the call-duty hierarchy contributes to what shifts he or she pulls. And don't forget that "long call" or "late call" doesn't necessarily translate to "grueling call" -- not if you spend most of your time sacked out on the sofa in the doctors' lounge.
"That's going to be a difficult thing for a regulatory body to determine," Hurley points out, "whether the call was hard enough to allow you to go home at noon."
Paul Watts, D.O., of Fort Worth, Texas, also a family practice resident, likewise supports flexibility in this aspect of residency training.
"I think it's important in a residency program that you get some training with training wheels on," Watts says. Knowing precisely what's expected of him and being aware of what his backup options are allow him to take full advantage of that training, he adds.
Legislation that would set federal limits on resident duty hours -- H.R. 3236 and S. 2614 -- came before Congress this year and may be reintroduced next year. Go to http://www.citizen.org/hrg/healthcare/articles.cfm?ID=8398 for a comparison of the various resident work hours proposals.
 Airlift delegation members board the massive C-5 Galaxy at Andrews Air Force Base to accompany donated medicines and medical supplies to Uzbekistan. Midair refueling over Scotland made the flight nonstop. |
 A dancing Uzbek orphan charms airlift delegation members at the Kibry Baby Orphanage in Tashkent. |
 An Uzbek physician is tested on her mastery of ALSO techniques by an Uzbek ALSO instructor during the final day of the second provider course. |
"I must admit that an airplane hangar is an unusual venue for a ceremony," Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage observed during his keynote at the Oct. 24 celebration marking the 10th anniversary Physicians With Heart humanitarian airlift to a former Soviet republic.
The event occurred at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, takeoff point for the airlift of nearly $10 million (U.S. wholesale value) of donated medicines and medical supplies to Uzbekistan. It was the second such airlift to that country. A delegation of nearly 50 volunteers, including many family physicians, accompanied the supplies, fanned out across Uzbekistan to document arrival of the supplies and gave medical education presentations for Uzbek physicians.
It was the 10th time that AAFP has joined with the AAFP Foundation and Heart to Heart International, a humanitarian aid organization, to sponsor an airlift to a former Soviet republic. In his remarks, Armitage noted that Physicians With Heart has some personal meaning for him.
"About 10 years ago, when Physicians With Heart and Heart to Heart International first started these airlifts, I was serving as coordinator for assistance to the commonwealth of independent states," he said, referring to the former Soviet republics. "So in a sense, I guess you could say I've come full circle."
After the ceremony, the airlift delegation boarded an Air Force C-5 Galaxy, the largest cargo jet in the United States, and for the first time accompanied the donated cargo overseas. The products filled the C-5's vast hold.
Another "first": The AAFP's Advanced Life Support in Obstetrics program was presented in Uzbekistan as part of the airlift project. Volunteer North American faculty taught the ALSO Provider and Instructor courses to a group of top OB-Gyns from throughout Uzbekistan. While initially skeptical, the Uzbek doctors "caught the ALSO bug," said Chip Taylor, M.D., of Fairfax, Va., who headed the ALSO faculty in Uzbekistan.
The Uzbek OB-Gyns then taught the ALSO Provider Course to another group of Uzbek physicians, under the guidance of the American faculty. If the Uzbek Ministry of Health develops a plan and secures grants for disseminating ALSO training further, many more Uzbek physicians and patients may benefit.
Four orphanages and schools -- a record number -- received help through the airlift's "children's project." Delegation members visited the facilities, leaving behind much-needed supplies and gifts -- as well as their hearts.
Finally, delegation members were in a sense ambassadors for America. Last year, after Sept. 11, the State Department called Heart to Heart right away, said Gary Morsch, M.D., the organization's president and founder. "They said, 'Heart to Heart and Physicians With Heart have been involved in Uzbekistan more than about anybody, and we would like to ask you to consider increasing your presence there to enhance the goodwill between Uzbekistan and the United States.'"
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AAFP Vice President for International and Interprofessional Activities Daniel Ostergaard, M.D., traveled with one delegation team to southern Uzbekistan and visited informally with U.S. soldiers stationed there. "They were glad to see us," Ostergaard said. "And it became so evident that this time, what Physicians With Heart did in Uzbekistan markedly enhanced the receptivity of the Uzbek people to the American presence necessitated by 9/11."
When delegation leaders met with U.S. Ambassador John Herbst Oct. 31 in Tashkent, "he just couldn't say enough about the airlift -- not just the aid, but the fact that the delegation came along," said AAFP Past President Richard Roberts, M.D., J.D., of Madison, Wis.
He added, "When I talked to Uzbeks and told them that these delegates paid their own way, took their own holidays and vacations to come here, they just couldn't believe it."
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If you are due for re-election to AAFP membership this year, Dec. 31 is the final date you can accrue the required CME hours. All credits earned should be reported to the AAFP by March 31. Members in the active and supporting (FP) categories must accrue at least 150 hours of AAFP Prescribed and Elective credit within each three-year re-election period.
Quiz card responses from American Family Physician and Family Practice Management are recorded in the year in which they are postmarked. So cards received at AAFP after Dec. 31 will be applied to 2003 CME records.
All questions about CME opportunities and requirements should be directed to a CME representative at (800) 274-8043. CME hours may be submitted online at http://www.aafp.org/cme.xml; by fax to (913) 906-6269; or by mail to CME Records, AAFP, 11400 Tomahawk Creek Parkway, Leawood, KS 66211-2672.
To the editor:
In regard to your October article "Flu Vaccine Flowing; Now What About Prioritization?" -- I would like to comment that it is sad to hear that our specialty thinks it important to express anger about chain stores supplying the flu shot. Isn't our priority simply to ensure that the public is protected from disease? Is our economy so fragile that we would covet those who help prevent disease? It seems to me that this is really misdirected anger toward these opportunistic chain stores, when the real problem is that our specialty has become relegated to a large degree in the same category of other "providers." We should be focusing our anger on the politicians who allow such a chaotic health care system to exist at the expense of excluding many individuals because they don't fit some sort of risk profile of insurability.
In short, such misdirected anger only perpetuates the health care crisis and gives the perception that we would like to be the ones who charge! What a shame.
Joseph Behal, M.D.
Syracuse, Kan.
To the editor:
Thanks for the October article on HIPAA; we were able to file for our extension well in advance of the Oct. 15 deadline.
In discussing the matter with my office staff, I learned that a videotape on HIPAA was mailed by the Centers for Medicare & Mediciad Services to a physician's assistant in my office who died two years ago. The physician's assistant was the only provider in our office of seven doctors and three extenders who received the videotape. I find this to be an interesting commentary on CMS' poor organization.
I also find it interesting that in order to come into compliance, physicians need feedback from CMS as to whether their electronic billings are proper. CMS has established a standard that cannot be verified, and therefore, physicians must apply for an extension. However, CMS does not notify physicians that they have to get an extension, but if they do not get the extension, they will lose Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement, yet there is no way to verify compliance.
CMS' concern over the low response rate should be a concern over its own incompetence.
Jerald Malone, M.D.
Las Vegas
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To the reader Write us a letter of 200 words or fewer (subject to editing). FP Report, 11400 Tomahawk Creek Parkway, Leawood, KS 66211-2672; fax them to (913) 906-6089; call (800) 274-2237, Ext. 5230; or contact fpreport@aafp.org via e-mail. |
To the editor:
I think AAFP has been quite delinquent in getting the word out that small offices don't have to comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. You have relied too much on "experts" who profit by selling HIPAA compliance and have spent too little effort on truly serving your membership.
Also, you have not provided data on the portion of family physicians who still use some or all paper claims (which could be a substantial portion of the membership). For myself, I bill less than 30 percent of claims electronically, and it was quite easy to step back to 0 percent.
Shame on my organization for selling us all up the river on this one!
Laurence Marsteller, M.D.
Tucson, Ariz.
Editor's note: Physician practices that do not electronically exchange, directly or indirectly, information related to any of the eight transactions listed in the HIPAA statute (e.g., billing) are not currently required to comply with the HIPAA statutes and regulations, regardless of practice size or location. The AAFP recognizes its responsibility to provide this information to members so they can make informed decisions. However, the Academy strongly supports FPs' adoption of information technology as a long-term strategy to improve patient care and to reduce administrative overhead. The Academy also recognizes the financial burden of complying with HIPAA's unfunded mandate. Updated HIPAA compliance information, including a discussion of who is a "covered entity," is available under "Got Questions?" at http://www.aafp.org/hipaa.xml.
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Recent updates to the Academy's member Web site include links to the Academy's new office supply affinity program at http://www.aafp.org/officesupplies.xml; the addition of new AAFP Home Study pages at http://www.aafp.org/homestudy.xml; and the launch of the "Shared Medical Appointments" chapter in the Quality Initiative section at http://www.aafp.org/x14713.xml. |
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The AAFP offers its newest addition to the video/monograph CME library -- "Urinary Incontinence: Assessment and Management in Family Practice." This new online addition helps physicians diagnose incontinence and select treatment options. Go to http://www.aafp.org/videocme for free video viewing. To order the new addition or the complete video/monograph series, go to http://www.aafp.org/catalog and click on "Video CME." |
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Proven value: Learn to teach others how to manage obstetrical emergencies -- attend the next Advanced Life Support in Obstetrics Instructor Course March 18 in Seattle. For more information, go to http://www.aafp.org/also.xml or call (800) 274-2237, Ext. 6554. |
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Proven value: It's not too early to mark your calendar for the premier CME event of 2003 -- the AAFP 2003 Scientific Assembly Oct. 1 - 5 in New Orleans. Watch your mailbox in coming months for more information or visit http://www.aafp.org/assembly.xml. |
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Copyright © 2002 by
American Academy of Family Physicians.
