 Thrill of victory: Mary Frank, M.D., center, flanked by sisters Joanne, left, and Cathie, celebrates news of her election. |
Truly, women have "arrived" in the AAFP. Or, New Orleans-style: Les femmes sont arrivées! Delegates proved that during the AAFP Congress of Delegates Sept. 30 - Oct. 2 in New Orleans when they elected Mary Frank, M.D., of Mill Valley, Calif., the Academy's first woman president-elect. Go to "Academy delegates choose new leaders, ABFP finalists" to read about all of the officers and directors chosen for 2003 - 2004.
Yet in an interview after her election, Frank preferred to focus not so much on her gender as on how she views her role as an Academy leader.
"You could hear the glass ceiling tinkle" when the election result was announced, she said with a smile. However, for her, it's never been about being the "first woman to do this or that," she said. It's simply been about doing what she believed in and believing in herself.
"I've always lived my life as someone who never thought anything was impossible," said Frank. It's a message she'd like Academy members to hear -- and pass along.
She spoke during the candidates' forum before the election, urging the delegates and other members to counter negative images about family medicine by becoming advocates for the specialty. "When I invited members to talk to the students and the residents, it was a call to them (the members) to remember what we do, remember what we're about," she said later.
Her speech at the forum focused on three areas: reimbursement, quality and access. Those issues, she said, are key to moving the specialty forward and helping family physicians best serve their patients.
"Those are the three things that are most important to me and that I think are really important for our members," she said. "And you can't do any one of the three without addressing all of them."
All three issues are part and parcel of the Academy's overall strategic plan. Only by passing Medicare reform legislation that ensures adequate, sustainable physician reimbursement can patients be guaranteed unfettered access to the quality care family physicians provide, Frank said.
Patients can be the greatest resource in making that happen, she observed, pointing to the Academy's new Patient Voices in Washington initiative (http://www.aafp.org/ptvoices.xml) as a tool patients can use to lobby legislators to effect positive change.
And it's a two-way street: "Patients are going to be our most effective advocates -- and we for them," she said.
"We have an opportunity to become the public voice, the human face, of medicine to our patients," she told delegates. Quoting Margaret Mead, she added, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
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