FPs Capitalize on Connections at 2022 FMX in D.C.

CME and Networking

“We’ve been doing online CME, but it’s not the same,” said Marianne LaBarbera, M.D., of Staten Island, N.Y. “The biggest benefit (of FMX) besides CME is the networking and recharging, being with like-minded people. We’re all here for the same purpose. Even though we come from different places and different types of practices, first and foremost, we’re all family physicians.”

Asked how many AAFP annual meetings she has attended in more than 35 years of membership, LaBarbera simply quipped, “Most.”

For example, Domino highlighted a systematic review of 54 studies regarding treatments to prevent prediabetes from progressing to type 2 diabetes. The treatments found to be most effective included lifestyle modifications, GLP-1 agonists and magnesium supplements.

Domino suggested starting with simple lifestyle changes, metformin and magnesium supplementation. If the patient’s A1c does not come down within a few months, he said, then add a GLP-1 agonist.

“It’s a home run,” said Domino.

More on the Main Stage

• Best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell declared that family physicians, who have the greatest opportunity to build trust through their long-term relationships with patients, can play a critical role in solving misinformation issues burdening public health today. Gladwell stuck around after his talk to sign hundreds of copies of his book Talking to Strangers in The Xchange.

• The mainstage event also introduced attendees to new AAFP President Tochi Iroku-Malize, M.D., M.P.H., M.B.A., of Long Island, N.Y., through her inaugural address.

• Dear World — a non-profit that strives to connect people through meaningful storytelling experiences — took the Main Stage to encourage family docs to write their personal stories and remember the experiences that capture their ‘why.’ Because “If your why is strong enough, you will figure out the how,” Dear World told FMX attendees. A kid told he wasn’t good enough, exposed early to drugs and violence and abandoned by his parents becomes a doctor. A doctor who loses her mother becomes closer to her than ever. A bullied middle-schooler becomes a doctor who helps others find their voices. Coming soon ... in-depth and powerful family physician stories, photos and videos from the FMX Dear World session!

Back in Action at The Xchange

Exhibitors greeted family physicians in The Xchange, where hundreds of booths covered 61,300 square feet of the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. All FMX attendees were required to provide proof of vaccination or a negative polymerase chain reaction test.

Celebration

Hundreds of family physicians and their guests dined and danced to the Emerald City Band as FMX officially got underway with Celebration, the FMX opening night event.

“It’s cool to be back at an in-person event after being so secluded during the pandemic,” said new physician Lishan Walker, M.D., of Rochester, N.Y. “We’re reuniting and reconnecting.”

Speed painter Cody Sabol produced giant images of Martin Luther King Jr. and the Statue of Liberty on stage during Celebration. Both pieces were auctioned to raise $6,300 for the AAFP Foundation’s Annual Fund, which supports future family medicine leaders, expands health care in underserved communities in the United States and abroad, and develops research opportunities for family physicians.

Unexpected Fun

If there were any doubt about the intangible benefits that an in-person experience offered, the Washington Nationals’ Racing Presidents mascots mingled with attendees for photographs before the first main stage event on Sept. 21, and a fife-and-drum corps in period dress awaited family physicians afterward for the opening of the exhibit hall.