AAFP News Now -- American Academy of Family Physicians

Doc walking down dirt road with black bag

Data Illustrate Geographic Dispersal of Family Physicians, Other Primary Care Professionals

(2/3/2012, 5:35 p.m.) -- Family physicians are the most likely of any physician specialty or subspecialty to practice in rural areas and the most likely to be geographically distributed in the same proportion as the U.S. population, according to a one-page fact sheet published by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) on Feb. 3. The data, which are based on research by the AAFP's Robert Graham Center for Policy Studies in Family Medicine and Primary Care, found that 22.5 percent of family physicians practice in rural areas, compared with 9.7 percent of all physicians who do so. More

Vaccine vial mock-up showing proposed two-dimensional bar code

CDC 2D Vaccine Barcoding Pilot Nearing Sign-up Deadline

Project Seeks to Assess 2D Technology's Ability to Enhance Data Capture

(2/3/2012, 5:35 p.m.) -- For family physicians who count immunizations as one of the many services they provide, the CDC is funding a two-dimensional (2D) vaccine barcoding pilot project that is scheduled to begin in August. The pilot is gearing up to begin installing scanning equipment and training participants, but there is still time to enroll. According to Erin Kennedy, M.P.H., D.V.M., a medical officer in the CDC's Immunization Services Division, "2D barcoded vaccines have a number of potential public health benefits, which include decreasing errors in recorded immunization information and improving patient safety." The sign-up period for the project, which will assess the challenges and determine best practices for documenting vaccine encounters using 2D barcodes, comes to a close in late February. More

AAFP Task Force Releases New Draft of Proposed Bylaws

Members Encouraged to Comment on Revisions

(2/3/2012, 5:30 p.m.) -- The AAFP is continuing its work on revising the organization's Bylaws, and a new draft version of the Bylaws is now available from the AAFP Task Force on Bylaws Revision. The revised draft is available for member comment until Feb. 29. AAFP Speaker John Meigs Jr., M.D., of Centreville, Ala., chair of the Task Force on Bylaws Revision, said this type of review is needed to ensure the AAFP's Bylaws remain relevant to the needs of the organization. "In the 64-year history of the AAFP, the organization had never undertaken a thorough review of its original Bylaws," said Meigs in a letter to members. More