Primary Care Residency Panel - Family Medicine and Combined Medicine-Pediatrics Programs

Interested in pediatrics and internal medicine but can't decide between the two?
Don't understand the difference between Family Medicine and Med-Peds?
Want to meet some family medicine or med-peds faculty?

Join us for panel of faculty members from the BMC Family Medicine Program, Brigham Women's/Children's
Hospital Med-Peds Program, and MGH Med-Peds Program.

When: Thursday, January 29 at 6:00 pm
Where: Hiebert Lounge

Medicine-Pediatrics Residency Programs are combined 4 year training programs with 2 yrs of pediatrics training and 2 yrs of internal medicine training. Residents graduate double-boarded in both pediatrics and internal medicine and can practice in either or both fields.

Family Medicine Residency Programs are generally 3 year training programs. Residents will graduate boarded in family medicine and will be able to practice a wide scope of medicine that includes OB, pediatrics and adult medicine.

The panelists include:

• Dr. Niraj Sharma, Director of the Brigham-Women's/Children's Medicine-Pediatrics Program
• Dr. David Ting, Director of the MGH Medicine-Pediatrics Program
• Dr. Joanne Wilkinson, Associate Predoctoral Director of the BMC Family Medicine Program
• Dr. Susan Hata, Med-peds at MGH Back Bay
• Dr. Colleen Monaghan, Associate Director of the Brigham-Women's/Children's Medicine-Pediatrics Program
• Dr. Eileen Pierce, Family Medicine at East Boston Neighborhood Health Center

Come learn about both specialties! There will be plenty of time for questions and interaction with faculty. Dinner will be served!

This event is co-sponsored by FMIG and PEDS Group.

New Year Resolutions at the AAFP

The AAFP plans to advocate for transforming the USA health care system in 2009 around the patient-centered medical home model.

Proposed transformation includes:

• payment reform
• workforce reform (creating a system that has enough PCPs to support universal health care)
• changing cultural values: respect, recognition and relief of family physicians and primary care doctors
  

Progress to date on the PCMH include recognition at both state and federal levels including insurance companies, consumer organizations and legislators. The adoption of the Joint Principles of the Patient-Centered Medical Home by the AMA on Nov. 10 is a huge step forward for the PCMH. The Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaboration also has a huge role in promoting the PCMH.

One of AAFP's focuses for the coming year is in promoting the fact that we cannot achieve universal health care as a nation unless we increase the number of PCPs. Massachusetts, for example, has nearly achieved universal health care on paper only to realize that it does not have enough PCPs to cover the entire population. It is like giving free bus passes to everyone when there is only 1 bus in the city.

AAFP plans to promote a transformed health care system based on primary care, a system which every other industrialized country has discovered. This requires attracting more residents into primary care and reforming the way that existing family doctors practice.

Check out the 2009 Environmental Scan on the AAFP Website that examines some of the health care policy and politics that may affect primary care and family medicine in this year. The website provides short video clips of different aspects of health care reform and policy.

Sports Medicine Workshops: Spring Semester

Dr. Alysia Green will continue leading monthly sports medicine workshops this semester. Each workshop will focus on a specific area of the body. Dr. Green will briefly review the anatomy of that region and then present an interactive examination workshop on that area of the body.

Workshops for the semester include:

Taping: January 15
Knee Exam: February 11
Concussion: March 18
Wrist/Hand and Foot/Ankle Exam: April 9

Watch for emails from fmig@bu.edu to sign up.