Daniel Lewis, MD, CPE, CAQSM, FAAFP
Candidate for vice speaker
Personal statement
As I evaluate my reasons for desiring to serve our Academy and how I want my AAFP colleagues to consider my candidacy for vice speaker of the Congress of Delegates, three words come into focus: advocacy, community and fidelity.
Advocacy
Medicine is at a crossroads in this country. Medicine, and family medicine in particular, operates on thin margins, straddling the line between access and accounting. We are the most affluent nation in the world, yet medical debt is the single most common cause of bankruptcy and access to health care is still a luxury for some, including our most vulnerable and marginalized. I will advocate passionately for family medicine as the fundamental keystone in healing our broken health care system.
Community
We all seek to belong. We find comfort in community. The AAFP is that community for me. It offered me a safe haven in medical school as someone who desired to be a family physician from the time I (thought I) knew what that entailed. It accompanied me through residency and fellowship as I sought to refine what my future practice would become. It has nurtured me through nearly two decades of medical practice, and given me a space to grow personally and professionally. In particular, the AAFP Congress of Delegates has served as a touchstone to dearly respected friends across the country. It has allowed me to express myself while challenging me with views different than my own, clarifying and sharpening the prism through which I view the world. Now, I want to give back to this esteemed body through service as vice speaker, to provide an efficient environment that welcomes all and encourages diverse voices and ideas while crafting a consensus that will move us as a collective forward. In the words of Henry Ford, “Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.” I intend to be a voice to bring and keep us together, working toward success.
Fidelity
We live in a world with conflicting perspectives on fidelity. To most, fidelity is the quality of being faithful or loyal. We can see many positive examples of this loyalty and, unfortunately, troubling instances in which fidelity arises not from a spirit of service to others but from self-interest. Another quality of fidelity is accuracy or truthfulness. We—and our patients—are constantly bombarded with inaccuracies veiled as truth. I promise to serve you, as members of this Congress, and our Academy at large with absolute faithfulness and loyalty to the tenets and policies directed by you, irrespective of my personal perspective, always striving for accuracy in all I represent.
Our chapters have chosen you to represent their perspectives and needs in this exceptionally unique community. We are given a platform within which to amplify their voices, promulgate ideas, and mold and grow them into instruments for advocacy. I would be honored to serve you with fidelity as your vice speaker for the AAFP Congress of Delegates.
Born in Northeast Tennessee, Daniel "Danny" Lewis, MD, FAAFP, grew up in the rural community of Hampton. While a student, he was included in a newspaper feature called "An Ordinary Special Kid," where he proclaimed he wanted to be a "doctor—because they help people." From this day forward, his interest never wavered. As a first-generation college student, Danny was selected for the East Tennessee State University honors program and was also chosen as a member of the ETSU pre-medical/medical program, which provided a pathway to enrollment in the ETSU Quillen College of Medicine as a member of the Class of 2004.
Upon enrolling at Quillen, Danny gravitated toward the specialty of family medicine, the only specialty available that did not, in some form or fashion, limit the role in medicine or the population with which he could interact and treat. Danny joined the Quillen Family Medicine Interest Group, and, as a first-year student, authored the program’s first successful application for an AAFP FMIG Program of Excellence award.
After attending his first AAFP National Conference for Family Medicine Residents and Medical Students (with many more in his FUTURE), Danny was chosen to serve as an FMIG regional coordinator. After this, Danny sought and won election as the FMIG national coordinator, beginning a series of student and resident leadership positions that resulted in Danny serving as AAFP resident board Member in 2007.
After his matriculation from medical school, Danny and his family moved to Greenwood, South Carolina, to join the Self Regional Healthcare Family Medicine Residency program. After this training, Dr. Lewis gained a spot in the primary care sports medicine fellowship at Wake Forest University.
After his fellowship, Dr. Lewis joined an established family medicine practice in Greeneville, Tennessee, while also being granted the opportunity to start the town's first sports medicine clinic.
After four years in practice and service as chief of staff, Dr. Lewis was afforded an opportunity to succeed the inaugural chief medical officer of Takoma Regional Hospital. This began an unexpected but fruitful career in administrative medicine, which has progressed to his current service as the only family medicine-trained regional chief medical officer for Ballad Health, where he has served as many as six facilities, and currently serves three, as their chief physician executive.
Dr. Lewis has also served the Tennessee Academy of Family Physicians in nearly every leadership role, serving as president of the TNAFP in October 2020 following a near-death experience with COVID that spring. He currently serves as senior delegate for the Tennessee chapter to the AAFP Congress of Delegates while serving as the chair of the reinvigorated TNAFP Foundation, an organization now dedicated to advancing family medicine within Tennessee through engaging medical students and residents.
In addition to his administrative role, Dr. Lewis continues to see patients clinically both in outpatient and hospitalist settings, while also serving as team physician for Tusculum University and as medical director for the Greene County Schools athletic training program.