Rhode Island Medical Student Elected to the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Family Physicians

SAN DIEGO – Amy McIntyre, a medical student at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University in Providence, R.I., has been elected to the board of the directors of the American Academy of Family Physicians. The AAFP represents more than 93,000 physicians and medical students nationwide. McIntyre was elected to a one-year term by the National Congress of Student Members and was confirmed by the governing body of the AAFP, the Congress of Delegates.

As the student member of the board of directors, McIntyre is responsible for representing the interests and opinions of the National Congress of Family Medicine Residents to the AAFP Board of Directors and Congress of Delegates. In addition, she will advocate on behalf of family physicians and patients nationwide to inspire positive change in the U.S. health care system.

A member of the AAFP since 2004, McIntyre served as student chair of the AAFP’s National Conference of Family Medicine Residents and Medical Students for the past year. She has been active in the AAFP National Congress of Student Members since 2005, when she represented the Rhode Island Academy of Family Physicians. Her contributions to the RIAFP also include serving as student liaison to the executive board.

Since 2004, McIntyre has been active in the Alpert Medical School’s Family Medicine Interest Group. In 2006, McIntyre served as the northeast regional FMIG coordinator. A year later, she was elected as the national FMIG coordinator and served as a student representative to the AAFP Commission on Education and the Commission on Membership and Member Services.

In addition to her professional organization activities, McIntyre has served as student liaison to the Rhode Island Department of Health’s Primary Care Provider Advisory
Committee and was a community health project coordinator and student liaison with the department’s National Health Service Corps SEARCH (Student Experiences & Rotations in Community Health) Program.

McIntyre also has worked as a cancer screening case management volunteer with the Whittier Street Health Center in Roxbury, Mass. In Providence, she was a diabetes screening volunteer with the Chad Brown Health Center, a homeless health clinic volunteer at Crossroads Rhode Island, and a patient advocate with the Providence Housing Authority.

In 2004, she was the author of a policy paper, “Medication Administration by Unlicensed Personnel in R.I. Nursing Homes and Assisted Living Residences,” for the Rhode Island Department of Health Division of Facilities Regulation. Her report was later referenced to create state licensing regulations for such personnel.

In 2007, McIntyre was named a Pisacano Scholar, the prestigious award presented by the Pisacano Leadership Foundation of the American Board of Family Medicine. She also received the Commitment to Primary Care Award, presented by the Rhode Island Area Health Education Center in 2006 and was named an NHSC Scholar by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 2005.

In addition to completing her medical degree in May 2009, McIntyre will complete her master of public health degree from the Harvard School of Public Health. Before entering medical school, she graduated summa cum laude and class salutatorian from Providence College.