AAFP Congress of Delegates Experience

The AAFP Congress of Delegates is the academy's policy-making body. It is being held in Boston this year (as I write) and I thought I would share some of my experiences attending one day of the Congress.

The Congress consists of 2 delegates from each state, 2 resident delegates and 2 med student delegates. All AAFP members are allowed to attend (may I add at this point that medical student membership to the AAFP is free). During the Congress, the Executive and Board positions are elected. Also, various policies, which are introduced by the state delegates, are discussed and voted upon.

I attended three of the reference committee hearings: Committee on Education, Committee on Advocacy and Committee on Health of the Public. At a reference commitee hearing, resolutions created by states are introduced and any AAFP can provide testimony for or against the resolution. The reference committee then makes a recommendation for or against the resolution and this is then voted on in the large Congress.

Committee on Education highlights:

- a resolution was introduced to eliminate Step 2 CS based on the fact that it does not in fact evaluate clinical skills, is a financial burden on students and is of no use in differentiating between students for residency programs. Of note, not a single residency director or educator stood up and defended the usefulness of Step 2 CS! One of the delegates said: "A pre-med student with no clinical experience could read FirstAid for Step 2 CS and pass it."

- proposals to advocate for increase in funding for primary care residency programs

- a resolution supporting expanding student and residency leadership positions within the AAFP

Committee on Advocacy highlights:

- a huge debate about single payer health care system. It seemed like many of the members who testified supported the single payer system but did not think it is the right time to implement it

Committee on Health of the Public:

- advocating for banning cell phone usage while driving

- advocating for increased social determinants of health education in medical schools

- advocating for mandatory influenza vaccinations of health care workers

... to mention a few. Click here for more details about the congress.

Some Recent News from AAFP

• AAFP Leaders Attend Presidential Speech on Health Care Reform, Private Meeting With President Reinforces Importance of Primary Care
  


• AAFP Statement: Family Physicians Call on Senate to Confirm Regina Benjamin, MD, as Surgeon General

Upcoming Events!

The semester is well underway now, as you can probably guess by the recent dearth of blog posts. FMIG is still alive and kicking though! Don't pronounce us just yet.



We have super exciting events lined up for the next few weeks, especially as we partner with other student organizations to host National Primary Care Week together. This year's theme is:

Primary Care is Everybody Care:
The Future of Medicine is Now
October 19-23, 2009

To kick off NPCW, we will have a talk in Hiebert at 6pm on Friday, October 16, with none other than Dr. Ted Epperly, President of the American Academy of Family Physicians!

Dr. Epperly will begin the evening as the keynote speaker. He will be addressing the key role of family medicine and primary care in serving the future of health care in America, with a focus on minority health issues. He will also be discussing current health care reform efforts.

His keynote will be followed by dinner, small group discussions on advocacy, and networking opportunities. We hope everyone will be able to make this talk-- it is certainly not often that BUSM gets a visit from the president of a national professional academy, and even rarer to have that guest be so well-versed in and intimately connected to the current healthcare reform debate with a powerful voice for primary care and for family medicine.