Opening Primary Care Week With a Bang -

- FMIG's first event was held on Monday!

"Can I Afford to Do Primary Care: A Workshop on the Economics of a Career in this Specialty"
with Dr. John Wiecha, Assistant Dean of Student Affairs

Students were able to see just how well a new family med doc could live after graduation. Cost of living (food, even alcohol), housing prices (in Boston or Denver), compensation (residency and beyond), loan repayments (10 or 25-year plans), spousal income, retirement savings and children were all included in the calculations.

Perhaps more importantly, a few options for debt repayment/forgiveness were outlined including the National Health Service Corps and the newer Non-Profit Loan Forgiveness (NPLF) plan.

Thank you to all the first and second-year BUSM students who came out to this important info session - watch for more sessions hosted by Dr. Wiecha in the future.

National Primary Care Week at BUSM

All at BUSM are invited to attend National Primary Care Week events November 1st - November 5th.

FREE FOOD WILL BE PROVIDED AT ALL EVENTS

RSVP (http://tiny.cc/4378w)

The events include:

Monday November 1st: 11:30-12:30 *L109

"The Economics of Primary Care" A lunch talk with Dr. Wiecha and Dr. Kelly

* PLEASE RSVP to this event as space is limited (http://tiny.cc/4378w)

Tuesday November 2nd 5:00-7:00 pm

Primary Care Mixer - bring your questions for a casual, candid conversations and networking with primary care physicians. The physicians attending are from a variety of different primary care specialties and various years in practice.

* This Event is at JJFoley's 117 East Berkeley Street Boston, MA 02118

* A group will be leaving at 4:45 from the medical school lobby

Wednesday November 3rd 11:30-12:30 *L206/209

Pediatrics Residency lunch Talk and Panel

Thursday November 4th 6:00-7:30 *Heibert

"Primary Care Pathways" Come listen and ask questions to a panel of Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Pediatric, and OB/GYN primary care physicians. The panel will discuss what drew them to primary care in general and to their field in particular, and about what their current practice is like (patient population, types of work, lifestyle, advantages/disadvantages).

Friday November 5th 11:30-12:30 *L109

"How Health Reform will Affect Primary Care" Hear from Dr. Alan Sager as he discusses the recent health reform law and how it will change the face of primary care health care.

Please RSVP to the above events at http://tiny.cc/4378w

Please also complete the following survey to assist our groups in funding these events: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/3F69QQR

We look forward to seeing you next week!

AMSA, FMIG, IMIG, and PEDS

*Room Change*

Our "What is Family Medicine" event on Tuesday, September 14th (11 am) will be held in R-103, not R-115 as originally posted.
See you there!

-BUSM FMIG

"What is Family Medicine?"

Good question. Come out to FMIG's next event September 14th to find out!

We'll have our speakers and panelists address this and other important issues such as:
-"what is this FMIG you speak of?"
-"how do CCHERS, FaMeS, and Family Med Scholars differ?"
-"can I get some free pizza for lunch?" (yes!)

When: Tuesday September 14th, 11 am - 12 pm
Where: R-115
What: presentation/panel discusssion/Q+A/lunch

Family Medicine Residency Panel + Dinner

Our first event was a great success - thank you to all the hungry first-years who came to get in on our exceptional thai food, and of course, to ask all the important questions of our family medicine panelists.

Our panelists graciously explained how family medicine differs from other specialties (such as internal medicine), what kinds of experiences prepared them for a career in the field, relevant financial considerations and why they ultimately chose family medicine. Thank you to:

Dr. Tom Hines, Residency Director at BMC Family Medicine Residency
Dr. Caitlin Day, PGY3 at BMC Family Medicine Residency
Dr. Anthony Lim, BUSM '10 and resident at
Santa Rosa Family Medicine Residency
Dr. Angelica Salazar, BUSM '10 and resident at
UCSF-Natividad/Monterey Bay

2010-2011 FMIG Gets Rolling

Stay tuned for the inaugral event organized by our incoming 2010-2011 FMIG leaders!

Mark your calendars for May 11, 5-6 pm.

Cheers,

2010-2011 FMIG
Ammarah Iqbal
Emily Kidd
Laura Moreno
Lauren Scott
Megan Waterman

Global Health in Family Medicine

I have attached below a post on the Student Leaders listserve regarding Global Health Opportunities in Family Medicine. Feel free to contact either of the national student reps: Andy (alutzkanin@hmc.psu.edu) or Kevin (kmb64@drexel.edu) for more information

A variety of AAFP Commissions met this past week in Kansas City, including your appointed resident and student leaders. The Subcommittee on International Family Medicine was one of these, and I wanted to provide you a few updates about what we talked about. Some things were new business, and some were finding ways to respond to student and resident resolutions from National Conference. Take a look at the notes below, and feel free to contact any one of us if you want more information!


• Global Health Networking: The Subcommittee discussed the resolution from NCFMR/S on creating a Global Health Networking Link. There is currently a discussion board and listserv for this purpose, but it is not utilized. As a start, we decided to create a Facebook page modeled after the National Conference example, but using the Family Medicine Global Health Workshop as the focus of the page. This would allow the opportunity for postings about people's experiences in international activities. The AAFP will also provide content on the page with references to available resources for Global Health, including links to a database (more info below). It will also allow the AAFP to publicize the Global Health Conference and link attendees together for productive conversation and networking.

• We discussed and updated the Global health Curriculum Guidelines. The students and residents will also be updating the presenting for National Conference on preparing for an international experience. If you have tips to share, please let us know.

• Student International Scholarships: A fund is going to be established within the AAFP Foundation to support students in international experiences. While there is not enough money to guarantee scholarships at this time, the fund will be a way to start the process for when funds become available. People can donate to this fund, with the idea that it will eventually have enough money to fund students for experiences. So if you know any rich benefactors, point them here!

• Global Health Link off homepage: It was discussed that finding global health resources takes multiple clicks off the homepage. Many discussed how global health is a big draw for students to go into Family Medicine, and suggested we make it more prominent. It also fits with the goal of trying to emphasize Family Medicine’s essential role in global health, especially given the Obama administration’s Global Health Initiative.

• Global Health Contact Database: Working from the resolution from National Conference, we agreed with setting up a database of members who have participated in global health programs and will work with staff to set it up. Staff had already been working on this through the Global Health Workshop.

• AAFP Statement on Global Health: The Obama administration’s recently announced Global Health Initiative, as well as a new Institute of Medicine report on Global Health look at improving health care systems in developing nations. Some other organizations have issued statements reviewing these documents and made recommendations. The subcommittee decided that we should also review this and create a statement that shows how FM is positioned to meet the goals outlined in these reports. So stay tuned for the statement!

• Student with Physicians with Heart: A resolution from NCFMRS requested a dedicated student position within Physicians with Heart, a group that travels on medical trips abroad. As of 2009, the AAFP is no longer a partner with Physicians with Heart, so it cannot make this happen. However, there is a rumor that Physicians with Heart is trying to make this happen anyway.

• Haiti earthquake relief: The AAFP Foundation is organizing disaster relief, both in resources and working with its partners the International Medical Corps and Heart to Heart International for volunteering.

• FM Global Health Workshop: For those interested in global health, the Family Medicine Global Health Workshop will be held in Coral Gables, FL on September 9-11, 2010. As of now, keynote speakers will include Donna Shalala, PhD, President of the University of Miami and Fitzhugh Mullan, MD, Dean of GWU Medical School. http://www.aafp.org/online/en/home/aboutus/specialty/international/pgms.html

• Newsletter: Check out the International newsletter if you want more updates. http://www.aafp.org/online/en/home/aboutus/specialty/international/internationalupdate.html

More questions? Get in touch with your subcommittee student/resident representatives
Andy Lutzkanin, MS3, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, PA
Kevin Bernstein, MS3, Drexel University College of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA
Lindsay Botsford, PGY-3, Baylor/Kelsey-Seybold FMRP, Houston, TX