AAFP Holds First Conference on Patient Safety

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, September 11, 2003

Contact:
Adam Lee
American Academy of Family Physicians
(800) 274-2237 Ext. 5221
alee@aafp.org

LEAWOOD, Kan. — The American Academy of Family Physicians’ (AAFP) will hold the first-ever National Ambulatory Primary Care Research and Education Conference on Patient Safety. The AAFP’s National Network for Family Practice and Primary Care Research received a $50,000 grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to convene the conference September 18-19 in Chicago.

The conference provides a forum for primary care educators, researchers and policy makers to share information that will help create safe environments for patients, staff and providers.

A packed agenda is planned for this conference. Leading primary care researchers and educators will present their current work and the immediate implications of their work for improving patient safety.

Helen Burstin, M.D., MPH, AHRQ Director of the Center for Primary Care Research is the keynote speaker. She will provide an overview of the AHRQ perspective on ambulatory primary care patient safety;
Gerald Hickson, M.D., Vanderbilt University vice chairman of Pediatrics, will review the patient’s role;
David Bates, M.D., MSc, medical director of Clinical and Quality Analysis for Partners Health Care, will discuss the research challenges; and
Joseph Scherger, M.D., M.P.H., clinical professor, Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, University of California, San Diego, will identify the education challenges in ambulatory primary care patient safety.

This conference is sponsored by the Primary Care Organizations Consortium, the AAFP Developmental Center for Research and Evaluation in Patient Safety in Primary Care, the National Patient Safety Foundation, and the Department of Family Medicine, Pritzker School of Medicine — The University of Chicago, with assistance from the Medical Group Management Association.

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Founded in 1947, the AAFP represents more than 93,000 physicians and medical students nationwide. It is the only medical society devoted solely to primary care.

Nearly one in four of all office visits are made to family physicians. That is 215 million office visits each year – nearly 48 million more than the next medical specialty. Today, family physicians provide the majority of care for America’s underserved and rural populations.

In the increasingly fragmented world of health care where many medical specialties limit their practice to a particular organ, disease, age or sex, family physicians are dedicated to treating the whole person across the full spectrum of ages. Family medicine’s cornerstone is an ongoing, personal patient-physician relationship focused on integrated care.

To learn more about the American Academy of Family Physicians and about the specialty of family medicine, please visit www.aafp.org.

For more information about the AAFP's positions on issues and clinical care and downloadable multi-media on family medicine and health care, visit the AAFP Media Center.

For more information about health care, health conditions, and wellness, please visit familydoctor.org.