September 1998
News for members of the American Academy of Family Physicians
Assembly to kick off 1999 Annual Clinical Focus
The Academy's 1999 Annual Clinical Focus -- Management and Prevention of the Complications of Diabetes -- will kick off with full fanfare Sept. 15 at the Annual Assembly in San Francisco. The ACF is an educational initiative designed to bring members state-of-the-art information on a specific subject area each year.
A news conference that morning will feature AAFP President Neil Brooks, M.D., as well as other leaders, FPs and a representative from the American Diabetes Association. To help raise awareness of the disease, diabetes risk-assessment questionnaires will be distributed outside the convention center and other areas around the city and published in a San Francisco Chronicle ad.
CME programs on the ACF topic will be offered at the Assembly and throughout the coming year.
FPs at Assembly also will have an opportunity to pick up a free Video CME program titled "Preventing the Microvascular Complications of Diabetes," which includes the video, syllabus and post-test. The syllabus will be distributed in November -- National Diabetes Month -- to all AAFP members, who will then be able to purchase the video.
Other components of the 1999 ACF program include a monograph titled Management of Diabetes, articles in AAFP publications, a CD-ROM of ACF core program elements, topics relating to ACF in several national CME courses, and many additional elements including other Video CME programs, monographs, regional symposia, chapter lecture series and an outcomes study.
Stephen Spann, M.D., of Houston, ACF medical director, said FPs will glean a great deal of helpful information from the diabetes ACF. "We have some exciting CME offerings, both at the national meeting and regionally," he said. "Diabetes is a very prevalent chronic disease in our society with a large burden of illness and health care costs. We need to do a better job of taking care of our diabetic patients and controlling their blood sugars so we can prevent complications of the disease and improve their clinical outcomes."
The 1999 Annual Clinical Focus program was developed in cooperation with the American Diabetes Association and is supported by grants from Novartis Pharmaceutical Corporation, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Eli Lilly and Company, Bayer Corporation, Parke-Davis, Knoll Pharmaceutical Company and Schering Laboratories.
.
Make room on shelves for Academy Collection reference books
An innovative new series of primary care references, written by and for practicing family physicians, will premiere this month.
The Academy Collection is a joint publishing venture of the AAFP in partnership with Williams & Wilkins, a Waverly Company headquartered in Baltimore, Md. The collection of books will cover the concerns that make up the largest part of a family physician's practice, from children's health to conditions of aging, from challenging diagnoses to common office procedures.
Each book in the collection will be about 200 pages long and will be sold to AAFP members for $24.95, with a nonmember price of $29.95. But the whole 10-volume series can be purchased as a unit for only $199 (a savings of $50.50). Call the AAFP order department at (800) 944-0000 and request the item numbers listed below.
The first four books in the 10-volume series will come off the presses in time for AAFP's Scientific Assembly, Sept. 16-20:
- Office Procedures (item #R590) provides details for performing 22 common office procedures, including information on setup, necessary equipment, pitfalls, complications, follow-up care and billing and coding information.
- Office Procedure Forms (item #R591) is a companion book to Office Procedures, providing the forms for easy incorporation of procedures into your practice.
- Challenging Diagnoses (item #R592) provides tools to uncover conditions that present with subtle or ambiguous symptoms.
- Conditions of Aging (item #R593) covers 10 of the most common conditions and concerns in elderly patients and provides the tools to make a diagnosis, provide follow-up care, and counsel on risk reduction and health promotion.
Over the next two years, six more titles will be added to the Academy Collection. They are Musculoskeletal Pain, Occupational/Environmental Medicine, Endocrine Disorders, GI Problems, Children's Health, and Skin Disorders.
News from Headquarters
Computer vendors make you queasy?
New book helps you launch EMR
If you're just thinking about computerized patient records or getting ready to upgrade your equipment, do yourself a favor. Take some tips from AAFP's new monograph.
How to Select a Computer System for a Family Physician's Office walks you through the process of purchasing software and hardware.
"This book forms a bridge from what many family physicians are used to, such as computerized billing and scheduling, to what they can be doing -- electronic medical records," says Susan Rehm, M.B.A., manager of practice development in the AAFP Socioeconomics Division.
She and technical editor Susan Kraft, M.D., of Leawood, Kan., developed the book under the direction of the Commission on Health Care Services. "As technology advances, the choices in potential applications can be overwhelming," notes the preface.
The book gives examples of successes and failures in automating family practices. One chapter will help you analyze your practice to see what you need your computer system to do. Another chapter lists questions to ask computer vendors and advises having a lawyer review your contract, to protect you from a company that's here today, gone tomorrow.
How to Select a Computer System for a Family Physician's Office, a 112-page document, is online at http://www.aafp.org/fpnet/guide on the AAFP web site. You may purchase spiral-bound copies by calling the AAFP Order Department at (800) 944-0000. Single copies (item #R603) cost members $10; 10 or more copies (item #R602) cost members $7 apiece.
Check out the Sept. 29 Newsweek
The Sept. 29 issue of Newsweek magazine will include a special section developed in cooperation with the AAFP.
Called "Parenting and Child Care," the 24-page section will feature articles written by five family physicians with the assistance of Academy staff in the news and special projects departments.
Topics are child safety, the growing family, choosing a child care provider, discipline, overuse of antibiotics, preconception care and nutrition.
The special section will be distributed to more than 21 million Newsweek readers. An additional 200,000 copies, packaged in bundles of 50, will be available for AAFP members to order for free. Simply call the AAFP order department at (800) 944-0000 and ask for item #R020.
Tar Wars book cover project discourages tobacco use, promotes poster contest
Young artists who submitted the winning posters in this year's national Tar Wars poster contest will see their work displayed (or at least carried in backpacks) throughout the country. Small versions of the top posters are featured on Tar Wars book covers -- highlighting artwork, protecting school books and disseminating anti-tobacco messages to children all at the same time.
The program's national book covers include four different designs, each with the winning poster art. They also list the "benefits of not using tobacco": white teeth, no "zoo breath," a healthier heart and lungs, no burn-holes in clothes, more money to spend on other things, and more friends because most people don't smoke.
AAFP constituent chapters are encouraged to contact the printer, Walraven Book Cover Company in Richardson, Texas. The company has the book cover template and can tailor the book covers with artwork of local and state poster contest winners.
Many states mandate book covers to keep textbooks clean and eligible for resale. To order the book covers for your young patients, contact your Tar Wars state coordinator. If you don't know who he or she is, call (800) TAR-WARS to find out.
Program tackles women's health issues
The National Network of STD/HIV Prevention Training Centers will present a live satellite broadcast -- Caring for Women: Management and Prevention of Cervicitis and Pelvic Inflammatory Disease -- from 12:30 to 3 p.m. EST Wednesday, Oct. 7.
The program will feature discussions of new diagnostic technologies for detecting chlamydia, screening strategies for the prevention of mucopurulent cervicitis and pelvic inflammatory disease, appropriate laboratory work-up, treatment and follow-up for patients with PID, and more.
"They'll be getting cutting-edge information on ambulatory conditions frequently encountered in women, particularly in the primary care setting," said Sylvie Ratelle, M.D., M.P.H., program moderator and assistant professor of family and community medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center-Worcester.
The program has been approved for three hours of AMA Physician's Recognition Award category I credit.
For information on registering at a downlink site near you, call (800) 562-0097 or pay a visit to http://inpharmatics.uc.edu/stdptc.html on the World Wide Web to register online. Most sites won't charge a fee to view the broadcast.
Book series needs stories
Life-saving stories currently are being collected for a new Chicken Soup for the Soul book, which will be titled Chicken Soup for the Life Saving Soul. Tentative chapters will include How What You Do Has Changed You, Acts of Kindness, Acts of Love, Acts of Heroism, Overcoming Obstacles, Going Above and Beyond the Call of Duty, and Thank You Stories From Those Who Were Saved.
The publishers want to hear from family physicians. If you or your patients have stories to share, send them to Joe Woodall and Rick Canfield, Chicken Soup for the Life Saving Soul, P.O. Box 45419, Phoenix, Ariz. 85064-5419 or send them to fmtc@primenet.com via email.
Resident & Student News
NCFPR/NCSM turns 25
Attendees at the National Congress of Family Practice Residents/ National Congress of Student Members in Kansas City, Mo., July 30 - Aug. 2 saw plenty of "new."
Three new procedural courses, covering OB-Gyn techniques, chest tube placement and joint injection, drew large numbers of attendees, and a new case studies workshop allowed residents and students to hear from some of the Academy's highest-ranking speakers on the topics of oral lesions, pediatrics, the ankle, rheumatology and emergency department scenarios.
But despite all the "new," the NCFPR/NCSM was celebrating its 25th anniversary in 1998. A book, called NCFPR/NCSM: 25 Years, was included in registration packets, and it gave attendees an opportunity to look back at the way things used to be.
Robert Graham, M.D., AAFP executive vice president, had a laugh along with the residents and students at the opening session when he mentioned the old photos and old fashions in that book. But he had a reminder.
"We're taking photos here today, and in 25 years you're going to look funny, too," he said.
Next year's NCFPR/NCSM is scheduled for July 28 -Aug. 1 in Kansas City, Mo.
A record year for attendance
For the first time, medical student attendance topped 1,000 at the National Congress of Family Practice Residents/ National Congress of Student Members.
Resident attendance reached more than 800 during the five-day convention. And an unofficial total of 3,396 residents, students, exhibitors, staff and guests gathered during the convention in Kansas City, Mo., from July 30 through Aug. 2.
In 1997, 952 medical students and 795 residents attended NCFPR/NCSM.
Students and residents: Meet your leaders
Representatives to AAFP Board: Deborah McPherson, M.D., of Omaha; Eddie Richardson of Austell, Ga.
NCFPR/NCSM chairs: David Meyers, M.D., of Takoma Park, Md.; Elizabeth Jo Johnson of Denver.
Delegates to AAFP Congress: Ron Falcon, M.D., of Roseville, Minn.; David Hutcheson-Tipton, M.D., of Denver; Maitri Chowdhury of Stony Brook, N.Y.; Tess Garcia of Richmond, Va.
Observers to Society of Teachers of Family Medicine Board of Directors: Sally Weaver, M.D., Ph.D., of Waco, Texas; Dan Dockham of Denver.
National Coordinator of Family Medicine Interest Groups: Leslie Brott of San Antonio, Texas. Observer to Association of Family Practice Residency Directors Board of Directors: Elizabeth Mock, M.D., of Matthews, N.C.
Focus groups seek input from students, residents
The Academy developed the Student Interest Task Force in 1988 to encourage medical students to choose careers in family practice. This year, however, instead of preaching the benefits of being a family physician, the SITF decided to update its knowledge of how residents and students feel about family practice. The SITF asked for their advice at the National Congress of Family Practice Residents/National Congress of Student Members, July 30-Aug. 2 in Kansas City, Mo.
For the first time, the task force contracted with the Mellman Group, a nationally recognized research firm, to conduct a series of "dial" focus groups with attendees at the meetings.
Each session allowed participants to share their thoughts and concerns regarding the specialty and the Academy in their own words. Throughout the two-hour sessions, participants also used hand-held "dials" that recorded their confidential responses to a variety of questions.
Views the residents and students shared:
- They like the idea of the compassionate old-time family doctor, who played a special role in the lives of patients and their families, paired with state-of-the-art information and technology available today.
- They chose family practice because they want to help people, take a leadership role in their communities and care for patients from the first cry to last breath.
- On the flip side, they have some concerns about managed care and the perception that FPs don't get the respect they deserve from medical colleagues.
Results from this research will help form the foundation for future communications with young people: potential medical students, students who are potential family practice residents, and residents who are potential AAFP active members.
"We believe that the information gained through this research project will give the Academy an edge in future communications with medical students about the specialty of family practice," said Julea Garner, M.D., AAFP Education Division assistant director and Student Interest Task Force staff executive.
News from Washington
Raise your voice
You can help ensure passage of FP-friendly spending bills
In the next couple of weeks, the House of Representatives and the Senate Appropriations Committee will vote on appropriations bills that could impact family practice. The Academy is working to ensure the impact is positive, and you can help by contacting your legislators.
The House Appropriations Committee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education adopted its version of the appropriations bill for Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies on July 14. The bill -- H.R. 4274 -- will head to the full House of Representatives this month.
Because the House bill has already been revised, or "marked up," the Academy has shifted its focus to the Senate. The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies was scheduled to mark up its version of the FY 1999 spending bill and send it to the Senate Appropriations Committee for mark-up early this month.
The Clinton administration has recommended physician user fees for enrolling in Medicare, submitting non-electronic claims and submitting duplicate or unprocessable claims. The House bill didn't include provisions requiring the fees, but it was unclear at press time whether the Senate bill will call for user fees. The Academy opposes such fees, which would seriously affect family physicians, many of whom do not have computerized practices.
The Academy also is advocating $51.1 million in funding for family medicine training programs through Title VII of the Public Health Service Act, as well as $171 million for the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research.
As a constituent, you can still influence your U.S. senators to consider these concerns.
The AAFP encourages you to raise the issues in a letter to your senators, particularly if he or she sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee.
For a list of committee members and a sample letter for you to personalize, sign and fax, call the Academy's document-on-demand system, AAFP Express, at (800) AAFP EXP [223-7397].
Supply your member ID number and follow the prompts, and the documents will be sent almost immediately to your fax machine for free.
More News
Upcoming symposia will explore cardiovascular health
As the 1998 Annual Clinical Focus -- Prevention and Management of Cardiovascular Disease -- winds down this fall, you can still take advantage of regional symposia across the country to expand your skills in caring for patients at risk for heart disease.
The symposia are offered in cooperation with the American Heart Association and AAFP constituent chapters, said LeAnn Carl, ACF manager in the AAFP Education Division. FPs will receive CME credit for attending the programs, which feature lectures, panel discussions and case studies, she said.
The topics are "Case Studies in Patient Management of Cardiovascular Disease," supported by a grant from Bristol-Myers Squibb Company; "Women and Heart Disease," supported by a grant from Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories; and "Cardiovascular Risk of Obesity," supported by a grant from Knoll Pharmaceutical Company. You can attend the symposia in the following cities:
- "Case Studies in Patient Management of Cardiovascular Disease" and "Women and Heart Disease," Oct. 16 in Overland Park, Kan.; Oct. 23-24 in Oak Brook, Ill.; and Nov. 13 in San Diego;
- "Case Studies in Patient Management of Cardiovascular Disease" and "Cardiovascular Risk of Obesity," Nov. 20 in San Francisco; and
- all three topics Jan. 30-31 in Baltimore, Md.
Survey responses address end-of-life care
The June FP Report mini-survey, "How do you feel about end-of-life care?" yielded interesting responses from a small number of family practice residents, practicing family physicians and retired doctors.
Although the sample was far from scientific, the comments were insightful. All practicing respondents said they talk to patients about their wishes for end-of-life care, but the quality of care for the dying in respondents' communities ranged from excellent to poor, with equal distribution along the continuum.
One new physician expressed frustration that his community had no hospice facility, while another respondent sent news of a residency program adding a hospice rotation.
Respondents called on the Academy to continue providing end-of-life information to members through journal articles, videos and patient education materials.
The AAFP should practice "active vigilance regarding how managed care and insurance issues are beginning to make hospice care more difficult," said one respondent.
Call (800) 926-6890, fax (816) 822-8372 or send an e-mail to meetinginfo@aafp.org for information on symposia registration.
Reader's Forum
Vilification of tobacco is out of touch
To the editor:
The recent printing of letters decrying the vilification of tobacco is encouraging.
Groups like the AMA and AAFP seem to be out of touch with their members. Tobacco policy is adrift because it is one thing to remind citizens about the dangers of smoking; it is fraudulent, however, to use the courts as legalized extortion to transfer smokers' money to politicians and lawyers.
Trial attorneys are playing physicians for absolute fools, especially since vilifying tobacco might increase teenage smoking. Later, the very enriched trial attorneys will only intensify the malpractice attack against our colleagues through the fraudulent civil court system.
The Journal of the American Medical Association just reminded us that medical "over"-treatment is this country's fourth-leading cause of death. Life expectancies are plateauing, or even declining here in Minnesota.
Health insurance (easy access without risk regard) and trial attorneys (force incredible levels of defensive medicine) ensure Americans often receive too much medical treatment. Tort reform, not tobacco reform, is the true way to improve health.
Physician fools = smiling lawyers.
JAMES LONG, M.D.
Andover, Minn.
FP Report * September 1998 * Volume 4/Number 9
The official news publication of the American Academy of Family Physicians. Published monthly by the News Department, Communications Division, for distribution to all AAFP members. Opinions expressed in the FP Report do not necessarily reflect the policies of the AAFP.
Paula Haas Binder, Editor, News Department
Todd Simchuk, Managing Editor
Sharon Dickinson Dent, Associate Editor
Jane Stoever, Associate Editor
Leigh Anne Bathke, Associate Editor
Renee Campbell, Production/CirculationAddress comments and inquiries to FP Report, 8880 Ward Parkway, Kansas City, MO 64114-2797; fax them to (816) 822-8857; call (800) 274-2237, Ext. 4230; or send them to pbinder@aafp.org via electronic mail.
Copyright © 1998 American Academy of Family Physicians. All rights reserved.
FP Report |AAFP Home | Search