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2014: Year of the Family Physician (Part XXI)
The finale of “How I Met Your Mother” achieved the highest viewing audience in its nine year run. Fans of the television series stormed social media to express their disapproval or sad reluctant acceptance of its ending. #HIMYMFinale was a top trending hashtag immediately after the episode concluded. People had invested nearly a decade of their lives watching a father tell his children how he met their mother. They saw much of their own lives and loves in the five main characters and had come to care for and about them. The series was a...
read more2014: Year of the Family Physician (Part XX)
WOW! 1,146 US medical school graduates chose family medicine in the 2014 residency match! A total of 3,000 family medicine residency positions were filled. This represents a continuing upward trend in the past five years regarding medical student interest in family medicine. The data are encouraging, but what inspired me was the number of future colleagues who posted pictures of their match notification letter in one hand and their 2014 Year of the Family Physician signboard in the other. A picture was worth a thousand dreams fulfilled....
read moreField Notes: Advice on Finding a Residency
We have finally arrived. After four years of endless studying, constant testing, and what sometimes felt like never-ending days in the hospital, a new crop of family physicians is about to join the ranks of residents-in-training. We have, for the last six months, hit the road to learn about and explore to our hearts content not just what kind of physician we hope to become, but also where and how. The question of “What kind of doctor do you want to be?” has gradually become, “What kind of family physician do you want to be?” With the euphoria...
read more4: AMAM
CAFP’s first All Member Advocacy Meeting (AMAM) in Sacramento was a smashing success by all accounts – particularly attendance and enthusiasm quotient, both of which set new records! The AMAM adopted a resolution continuing a special assessment to support the Academy’s legislative activities but raising the amount by $10 to $35 and extending the time period by five years to 10 years total. The AMAM also adopted a memorial resolution for past president Holger Rasmussen, who died on February 3, 2013. The Board heard testimony on three...
read more3 Jeremy Fish
Episode three of the FMRevolution podcast features Jeremy Fish, MD, who is March’s Member of the Month. If you are involved with CAFP’s efforts to expand the family medicine workforce, you’ve probably heard of Jeremy Fish, MD. An advocate for strengthening family medicine education statewide, Dr. Fish is a member of CAFP’s Medical Student and Resident Affairs Committee (MSRAC), on which he works to secure funding for resident and student education. In 2011, as part of his work with the Academy, Dr. Fish founded the Medical Education...
read moreSamantha
She was a tall woman, intimidating even, especially when she raised her voice. Nurses were reluctant to check in on her, and she refused every blood draw; sometimes she would allow her mother into the room, but they would always argue vehemently. Her explanation to me was always the same: her life was being threatened. Her mother was trying to kill her, poison her, hurt her. She was jealous. She didn’t understand her gift, she wanted to take it away. And the doctors? They wanted to take it too. They wanted to test her, challenge her, poison...
read more2014: Year of the Family Physician (Part XIX)
Once-in-a-lifetime opportunities are rarely once in a lifetime. And the events we initially thought were the most important or dire tend to blend into the background as we experience more of life. On February 4th, Kelly Conniff, Special Projects Editor at Time Magazine, tweeted “I need your favorite Twitter accounts, please.” I will sidestep educing her motive for now and focus on this Tweet’s potential as a nidus for shaping history. We have witnessed the collective power of people uniting to direct history rather than just to witness...
read moreFMRevolution Podcast: Episode 2
In this month’s episode of the #FMRevolution podcast, we’re featuring another incredible member of the California Academy of Family Physicians as part of our 2014: Year of the Family Physician member spotlight. The February spotlight goes to Dr. Marie Ramas. When asked how she defines leadership, Dr. Marie-Elizabeth Ramas states confidently, “Leadership is creating positive change in people’s lives. This is either done by example, or by becoming the voice for those that society does not care to hear.” Since the age of 13, when she...
read more2014: Year of the Family Physician (Part XVIII)
A few years back, I asked a group of UC Davis family medicine residents to record their rendition of “Turn! Turn! Turn!” the profound classic written by Pete Seegar and popularized by The Byrds. On the track is CAFP’s Chair of the Legislative Affairs Committee, Ashby Wolfe, who sang and played guitar. She was accompanied by Shomir Banerjee, Sonia Liu, Joby Morrow, and Kristin Setliff. I have come to consider “Turn! Turn! Turn!” as an anthem and soundtrack for family medicine. Based on the Book of Ecclesiastes Chapter 3, the song takes the...
read more2014: Year of the Family Physician (Part XVII)
People have stated that they want to support #2014yearfp, but they want to know what they are supporting. I realize that articulation of a message may be the most challenging part of a movement. Partners want to have something tangible and on a scale that they can pursue to sustain momentum while others may be working on different levels; they want shared ownership. I will go back to the basic premise of #2014yearfp and that is to get Time magazine to have the family physician recognized as their person of the year in 2014. However, the...
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