Technology Award Named for AAFP's CHiT Director

The Arizona AFP takes health information technology seriously. Enough so that this constituent chapter, in partnership with the Health Services Advisory Group, or HSAG, a quality improvement organization in Arizona, has established the Kibbe Award for Excellence and Leadership in Health Information Technology.

The award is named after David C. Kibbe, M.D., director of AAFP's Center for Health Information Technology. The award will be given annually to a family physician who demonstrates leadership within his or her medical community in the adoption and effective use of health IT.

Family physician Scott Endsley, M.D., of Scottsdale, Ariz., medical director for HSAG, said his organization wanted to honor physicians for their work in electronic health records, or EHR, adoption. He turned to the Arizona AFP, with whom HSAG has enjoyed a longstanding partnership, to make that happen.

Endsley said he persuaded the Arizona AFP to name the award for Kibbe because Kibbe's expertise regarding health IT issues is recognized nationally. Endsley has seen that expertise firsthand while collaborating with Kibbe on a number of projects. Kibbe's work, "represents the very best in family physicians' dedication to improving health care through electronic technologies," said Endsley.

The 2006 Kibbe Award was presented to FP Kenneth Adler, M.D., of Tucson, Ariz., on April 21 at the Arizona AFP's Annual Clinical Education Conference in Tucson.

In addition to his full-time practice at Desert Star Family Health in Tucson, Adler is the lead physician for the health IT program of Arizona Community Physicians, an 89-physician network, and he has worked to facilitate the adoption and implementation of health IT throughout the network's physician practices. As a participant in the Arizona Doctors Office Quality-Information Technology initiative, Adler also has assembled a group of FPs dedicated to working together to use their EHRs more effectively to improve chronic care.

Kibbe said he was grateful for the recognition and praised the award's first recipient. "It's an honor to have an award named after you while you're still alive and kicking, but the real honor here goes to Ken Adler, a great family physician," he said.