WASHINGTON – The American Academy of Family Physicians installed a new president and elected four* new board members and a president-elect, as all promised to take family medicine into a new, more focused, and more aggressive era.
The election results were announced Oct. 22 on the eve of the unveiling of a major new AAFP initiative, “Health is Primary,” which will seek to put family physicians at the forefront of the transformation of the health care system.
Alicia Ault/Frontline Medical News
Dr. Reid Blackwelder officially installed new AAFP officers and directors.
The details will be publicly released on Oct. 23, but in discussing the campaign with the Congress of Delegates, Dr. Glen R. Stream, a former AAFP president, said, “It is not self-serving to stand up and say the health care system needs solid primary care that’s well compensated to deliver that care in a medical home model.”
That goal “serves our patients and our country,” said Dr. Stream, who is in private practice in La Quinta, Calif. “We have got to get over ‘Family Medicine Nice.’ ”
Dr. Robert L. Wergin, who took over the helm as AAFP president, promised delegates that he would help them manage the challenges of the rapidly changing health care system and asked for their help. “We’ll finish this together and be winners in this health care delivery race,” he said.
Dr. Wergin, an AAFP member since 1982, practices in the town where he was born and raised – Milford, Neb. He’s chairman of the Milford public schools foundation board, and a team physician for the school district, and medical director of the town volunteer fire department. He was named Nebraska family physician of the year in 2002 and the state’s nursing home medical director of the year in 2012.
The new president-elect is Dr. Wanda Filer, a current AAFP board member who practices in York, Pa. She said that the new AAFP direction was “a completely new story.”
It will require the “mobilization of American family medicine,” with everyone coming to the table to explain why they are best positioned to lower costs, and improve access and quality, said Dr. Filer. In the next 3 to 5 years, “the message can be transformational for the American health care system.” New board member Dr. Lynne Lillie, said that she was ready to be a strong advocate for family medicine. “We as family practice physicians are overregulated, undercompensated, overburdened, and undervalued,” said Dr. Lillie, who is in private practice in Red Wing, Minn.
Dr. Robert L. Wergin
Noting a high level of burnout, a loss of job satisfaction, and declining empathy toward patients, she said,“This is not okay.”
Family physicians “deserve better and our patients deserve better,” said Dr. Lillie.
The Congress of Delegates also elected Dr. John S. Cullen of Valdez, Alaska, and Dr. Mott Blair, of Wallace, N.C., to full 3-year terms as directors. Dr. Cullen is the emergency medical services director for the Alaska Avalanche Information Center. Dr. Blair used to accompany his father, a family physician, on house calls, often into very rural areas. There, he learned “don’t step on a stick that moves,” he said.
The path ahead for family medicine is tricky – and may have sticks that move – but he said he was prepared to take on the challenges.
Dr. Carl Olden of Yakima, Wash., was the final new board member, and will serve the remainder of an expiring 1-year term and then be eligible to run again in 2015. Dr. Olden was born and raised in Toppenish, Wash., on the Yakima Indian Reservation.
After his residency, he went back to the reservation and practiced with the Indian Health Services from 1984 to 1995.
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*Correction, 10/24/2014: An earlier version of this story misstated the number of new AAFP board members elected.