- September 2004 -- FP Report

•Resident & Student News•

Tap into AAFP resources on specialty's new model of care

FMIG leaders discuss how their interest groups can help define the specialty of family medicine within the academic environment.

Family medicine interest group leaders, if you're excited about the future of family medicine and want to convey that fervor at your next FMIG event, the AAFP has resources for you to use.

That was the message Norman Kahn, M.D., AAFP vice president for science and education, delivered July 28 during an interactive workshop at the National Conference.

Using selected slides from a comprehensive slide library the AAFP has developed, Kahn gave FMIG leaders, coordinators, faculty advisers and others a close-up look at the Future of Family Medicine project's report and recommendations. He also challenged them to "pay it forward" by telling others about the FFM results.

For starters, Kahn pared the new model of family medicine down to a basic definition: "a personal medical home in which a patient establishes a continuous relationship with a physician and a defined basket of services is delivered." (See related stories for more on the new model.)

"Now as an individual family physician, I may not provide every one of those services," Kahn said, citing prenatal care, labor and delivery, and managing hospital inpatients as examples. "But even if I don't provide the service myself, I will make sure that the personal medical home my patients are part of provides that defined basket of services."

One upshot of the FFM project -- a process that literally began and ended with patient input -- was the identification of six areas on which the specialty's future depends, said Kahn. Namely:

responding to patients' needs and desires to have a personal physician who knows them, understands their health issues, and will help them navigate a health care system Kahn described as "magical" yet "very scary and very confusing";
organizing individual practices to deliver a consistent set of services that patients can identify and come to expect from their family physicians;
embracing science and technology to improve patient outcomes;
ensuring family medicine is an attractive career choice, including a rewarding lifestyle and enhanced reimbursement;
contributing to and leading the academic environment, including countering any denigration of the specialty within that environment; and
promoting a consistent message about family medicine so people get better understanding of the specialty.

To keep those findings fresh in the minds of everyone involved in the specialty, Kahn explained, the AAFP is sending every medical school, every family medicine department and residency, and every constituent chapter a poster -- suitable for framing -- displaying the six key points.

But that's only one way the AAFP is trying to help FMIGs get the word out about the FFM findings.

"You can have this slide show," said Kahn. "If you're a student, if you're a family medicine interest group leader, if you're a faculty member or faculty adviser, you can have it."

And there are plenty more slides to choose from, Kahn noted. "Understand that we have a thousand more slides," he said, "so whatever you want -- we can find it." Mix and match them to suit what you're trying to accomplish, Kahn invited. Create a presentation that answers the question, "What do people want from primary care?" or "What is the new model of family medicine?"

"My hope is that every one of you will show this slide show at least once during the coming year. I want to impact the attitudes of medical students before they submit their rank lists in early 2005."

To view and download various FFM slide presentations as PowerPoint files, go to http://www.futurefamilymed.org/x19624.html. You also can download a free copy of Microsoft's PowerPoint viewer at the site.

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