It's Time to Submit Award Nominations, Presentation Proposals

If you've been thinking about nominating a colleague for one of several AAFP awards or other honors, or if you've been developing an idea for a seminar to present at the Academy's 2007 Conference on Practice Improvement: Health Information and Patient Education, take note of some upcoming deadlines to submit materials for the following awards and other events.

Exemplary Teaching Awards
These awards recognize Academy members who have extraordinary teaching skills, as well as individuals who have implemented outstanding educational programs or developed innovative teaching models. This award is presented in each of three categories: full-time faculty, part-time faculty and volunteer faculty. For more information, call (800) 274-2237, Ext. 6702, or e-mail ccaton@aafp.org.

Thomas W. Johnson Award for Career Contributions to Family Medicine Education
Reserved solely for AAFP members, the Thomas W. Johnson Award is the highest honor the Academy bestows for outstanding contributions to family medicine education in undergraduate, graduate and continuing education spheres. It is intended to recognize a career of national prominence, reflecting leadership and long-term dedication to family medicine education rather than a single, significant contribution. For more information, call (800) 274-2237, Ext. 6702, or e-mail ccaton@aafp.org.

Practice-Based Research Network Stimulation Grants
One of the goals established in the AAFP Research Plan to Enhance Family Practice Research was to stimulate and support practice-based research within family medicine. In 2002, the AAFP Foundation began administering Practice-Based Research Network, or PBRN, Stimulation Grants to support uniquely identifiable research conducted by family physicians affiliated or associated with a family medicine PBRN. Applications for grants in all clinical research areas of family medicine will be considered; application forms are available online (PDF file: 4 pages / 36 KB. More about PDFs.) For more information, call (800) 274-2237, Ext. 4470, or e-mail smorantz@aafp.org.

AAFP/Bristol-Myers Squibb Award for Excellence in Graduate Medical Education
This award recognizes outstanding family medicine residents for their leadership ability, community involvement, exemplary patient care, and aptitude for and interest in family medicine. Second-year residents are eligible to apply for the award, which is intended to help fund their third year of graduate training. Application forms are available online. (PDF file: 2 pages / 87 KB. More about PDFs.)

Humanitarian Award
Reserved for Academy members, this award honors extraordinary and enduring humanitarian efforts both within and beyond the borders of the United States. For more information, call (800) 274-2237, Ext. 4512, or e-mail rjanssen@aafp.org.

Public Health Award
This award recognizes individuals who have made or are making outstanding contributions to the American public's health. Nominees may be nonphysicians who have an extraordinary impact on the public health of their community, state or nation; practicing physicians whose impact on public health reaches beyond their patient community; or public health physicians working in public health who are truly exceptional.
For more information, call (800) 274-2237, Ext. 3140, or e-mail jhaas@aafp.org.

Conference on Practice Improvement: Health Information and Patient Education
Submit proposals for lectures, papers, poster displays, seminars and special interest discussions for the 2007 Conference on Practice Improvement: Health Information and Patient Education, to be held Nov. 8-11 in Newport Beach, Calif. The theme for this year's conference is "Moving Into the Future," and its clinical focus will be on infectious and communicable diseases. Co-sponsored by the AAFP and Society of Teachers of Family Medicine, or STFM, the conference attracts family physicians and other primary care physicians, residency program faculty, residents and medical students, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, health educators, and others. Submissions should be made online; call STFM at (800) 274-2237, Ext. 5415, for more information about the submission process.

Robert Graham Family Physician Executive Award
This award, named in honor of Robert Graham, M.D., Academy EVP from 1985-2000, recognizes an outstanding family physician for his or her role as a physician executive. The Graham award is reserved for Academy members whose executive skills within health care organizations have contributed to excellence in the provision of high-quality health care and demonstrated that family physicians can have an impact on improving the overall health of the nation. Candidates are nominated by their constituent chapters. For more information, call (800) 274-2237, Ext. 4172, or e-mail cporras@aafp.org

Family Physician of the Year
This high-profile award recognizes a family physician who is directly and effectively involved in community affairs and activities that enhance the quality of life in his or her community. The award is reserved for Academy members in good standing, and nominations are made by a candidate's constituent chapter. The 2008 Family Physician of the Year will be honored at this year's Scientific Assembly in Chicago. For more information, call (800) 274-2237, Ext. 5222, or e-mail jdavis@aafp.org.

AAFP Foundation Wyeth Immunization Awards Program
This program recognizes family medicine residency programs that identify and develop creative solutions to overcoming barriers to childhood immunizations, thus increasing immunization rates, and allows them to share the best practices that have benefited the communities in which they live. Family medicine residency programs that have increased immunization rates within a defined time parameter and can demonstrate the best practices implemented to achieve the higher compliance are eligible to apply. Application forms are available online. (PDF file: 6 pages / 73 KB. More about PDFs.) For more information, call (800) 274-2237, Ext. 4406, or e-mail dazbill@aafp.org.