www.fmec.net

February | 2024

It’s 2024, and the FMEC is thriving! We’re happy that the 2023 Annual Meeting in Providence was so successful, with our largest Residency Fair ever and over 1,000 attendees. I know many of us are still thinking and talking about the excellent plenaries and many other great sessions we attended. Providence was a great place to meet (and we will probably be back).

Next week in Philadelphia, the FMEC Board of Trustees is holding our 2-day, in-person meeting, and we have an ambitious agenda. We will make plans to continue our growth – not just growing the Annual Meeting but our other programs as well. When you registered for the Annual Meeting last year, we asked you about the challenges you are facing in academic family medicine (see article below), and we will be using your input to decide on new committees, educational programs, and other initiatives. We will also be strategizing on how we can engage and support even more residency programs and health systems, at the meeting and as FMEC Partners. (Is your organization an FMEC Partner and getting benefits and discounts? If not, please join before registration opens for 2024!)

We are particularly excited to welcome our new board members at the meeting next week. Taylor Rider, DO, MS of UPMC Williamsport Family Medicine Residency has joined as our new resident member, Hannah Clarke, MPH of Case Western Reserve University is our new medical student member, and Britt Gayle, MD, MPH, AAHIVS of the Health Resources and Services Administration is our new member-at-large. We are excited to benefit from their input and appreciate their leadership of the FMEC!

Please enjoy this month’s update on the FMEC, and don’t hesitate to connect with me or Scott Allen with any questions or suggestions.

Leon McCrea, II, MD, MPH, FMEC President

Drexel University College of Medicine

Philadelphia, PA

February is Black History Month! The FMEC celebrates the accomplishments of Black family physicians and other primary care providers, and we salute the many FMEC members and others who continue to work toward increasing diversity and fighting inequities in health care.

Schedule change!

Beginning in 2024, the schedule for the meeting will change in order to eliminate programming on Sunday. Preconferences will occur on Thursday, and the meeting itself will be held all day Friday and Saturday, with no programming or events on Sunday. The FMEC Annual Meeting will continue to have 10 concurrent session slots with 15-20 sessions each, 3 plenary sessions, 4 hours of the Residency Fair over two evenings, the poster session, and more. But attendees will be able to leave Saturday evening or early Sunday morning, spending Sunday with their families or catching up on work and life.

Attendees should plan to arrive on Thursday (early in the day to attend preconferences, or later in the day if not). Educational sessions will start at 9am on Friday. The meeting will end at 6:45pm on Saturday with the closing of the Residency Fair. Medical students who are given free rooms due to FMEC scholarships will continue to be housed on Friday and Saturday evenings.

When to expect registration to open

Plan now to register for the meeting! The FMEC anticipates a registration schedule as follows (subject to change).

• March 18, 2024 - Exhibitor, Sponsor and Residency Fair Registration
• May 1, 2024 - Individual Registration and Scholarships open
• June 28, 2024 - Early Bird Deadline
• August 9, 2024 - Final Registration Date for Residency Fair & Exhibitors
• September 6, 2024 - Online meeting registration closes. You must register on-site after this date.

Presenter acceptance letters will be sent out in May 2024.

Host Committee planning a great meeting

Each year, a Host Committee of faculty, residents and others from local programs chooses the theme and plenary speakers for the meeting, and they raise funds for sponsorships and other activity. The 2024 Host Committee is co-chaired by Drs. Sarah Morchen (Crozer) and Andy Goodbred (St. Luke’s) and features 23 people from 18 institutions (see below).

Thank you to everyone who is working hard to make this a great meeting! If you have suggestions for plenary speakers, or your organization would like to sponsor the meeting, please reach out to Scott (scott.allen@fmec.net), or Sarah (sarah.morchen@crozer.org) or Andy (andrew.goodbred@sluhn.org).

• Bayhealth Family Medicine Residency
• Beebe Healthcare Family Medicine Residency
• ChristianaCare
• Cooper University
• Crozer Health Family Medicine Residency Program
• Delaware Valley Community Health
• Drexel University College of Medicine
• FACTS about Fertility
• Inspira Mullica Hill
• Inspira Vineland
• Jefferson Health Northeast
• Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania
• Saint Francis Family Medicine Residency Program
• Sidney Kimmel Medical College
• St. Luke's Family Medicine Residency Anderson
• Suburban Community Hospital
• Temple Family Medicine Residency Program
• Temple University Hospital
• Thomas Jefferson University
• UPMC Williamsport Family Medicine Residency

Over 1,000 students, residents and faculty joined the FMEC for the 2023 Annual Meeting in October in Providence, RI. Read more and see photos from the meeting in the 2023 Annual Meeting Wrap Up Report.

Volunteers make the meeting successful

Hundreds of people make the FMEC Annual Meeting successful – from the FMEC Board, Host and Planning Committees, to the scores of speakers, to the sponsors and donors who underwrite the event and help us bring 300 medical students to the meeting. A critical group are the onsite volunteers. The FMEC’s small staff could not pull off such a large and complicated meeting the help of these individuals, who spent long hours staffing the registration desks in 2023. Thank you so much to Aslin Serrano, Theresa Weinman, Theresa Slagel, and Bridget Nandawula!

The FMEC 2023 Annual Meeting asked registrants to share with us a professional challenge. In likely unsurprising news, you told us you were challenged by the following things (in order of frequency):

Lack of work/life balance

Transitioning/adjusting (to attending life, to residency, to my next career, to part time, to a new faculty role, to retirement, and more)

US health care system challenges

Lack of administrative time

Staffing, recruitment and retention

Program recognition and following guidelines

Personal job issues (finding one, changing, salary, career advancement)

Charting

Starting or growing a residency program

Developing scholarly work, publishing

Avoiding burnout

Practice challenges (office flow, billing, EMRs)

DEI/equity issues

Hospital or health system finances

The FMEC appreciates this input and will discuss it as part of our program development and strategic planning.

Unlock the power of Rosh Review for your residents

Host a POCUS workshop with the FMEC

Is your residency program interested in working with the FMEC and Global Ultrasound Institute (GUSI) to host an in-person, 2-day POCUS course at your institution, for providers and trainees in the region, sometime this spring or summer? Contact Scott Allen at scott.allen@fmec.net if you would like to discuss options.

Family Medicine Showcases – July through September 2024

Since 2020, dozens of family medicine residency programs have showcased their programs to hundreds of medical students through the FMEC’s virtual Family Medicine Residency Showcases. Whether your program can be onsite at the FMEC Residency Fair in September or not, this is an opportunity to reach an additional audience of students and others and share what makes your program unique. Showcases will be held July 16 through September 15, at 6pm Eastern, on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Fees are $300 per session for programs also participating in the FMEC Residency Fair in September, and $600 per session for those who are not. Once you register, select your preferred date, and share the topic you want to promote (for instance, women’s health, advocacy, lifestyle medicine, etc.), the FMEC handles the rest – we schedule the virtual meeting, promote it, and take registration. You just show up and talk about your program! Watch for Family Medicine Residency Showcase registration to open in the next few weeks.

Teaching residents and students about Medicare, Medicaid, and the Marketplace

What do you teach your residents about Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act’s Healthcare Marketplace? Are you looking for tools and strategies to better prepare physicians to understand and participate in these important but complicated programs when they are out in practice? Such as this 8-page Medicare & Medicaid Basics fact sheet from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Please let the FMEC know what you currently teach, and if you are interested in working with the FMEC to help CMS share its educational materials with residents and students.

Get inspired by the FMEC Healthcare Innovators Network

Since 2008, the FMEC has hosted the Healthcare Innovators Network during its Annual Meeting, where industry leaders present cutting-edge practices and more. The 2023 presentations shared information such as: a risk assessment using demographics and billing data that stopped 300 patients from migrating to the high risk/high cost category; a primary care model where appointment times are 30 minutes in length, and physicians spend most of their time face to face with their patients; and evidence-based, guideline-driven lifestyle medicine group visits that have, for instance, stimulated significant blood pressure reduction and decreased medication after only 4 sessions. And those were only 3 of the 15 talks! You can catch up on these presentations by reading short write-ups newly posted on the FMEC Annual Meeting Healthcare Innovators Network page. The FMEC is very grateful to One Medical for their support of the event, and for participating to showcase their unique model.

The FMEC Board of Trustees welcomes Dr. Britt Gayle

Britt Gayle, MD, MPH, AAHIVS recently joined the FMEC Board of Trustees, filling a vacancy for a 2023-2026 member-at-large term. Dr. Gayle, MD is a Physician Advisor for the Health Resources and Services Administration and part time faculty at MedStar Franklin Square Family Medicine Residency Program. He was previously employed as a full time faculty physician at MedStar and designed the curriculum for the program’s HIV primary care rotation. He has presented at FMEC Annual Meetings, served as a proposal/abstract reviewer and poster judge, and served as a member of the Host Committee. Read more about Dr. Gayle and the rest of the Board on the FMEC Board of Trustees page. Thank you to all those who expressed interest in joining the FMEC Board of Trustees. Watch for opportunities to apply later in 2024 and in 2025.

Eight clinics are improving hereditary breast cancer screening with the FMEC!

The FMEC has launched a new learning collaborative focused on quality improvement (QI) on hereditary breast cancer screening and referral, and we thank the 8 family medicine residency programs (FMRs) who have joined! The project will help clinics use narrative medicine tools to introduce discussion of hereditary breast cancer into visits, implement a validated breast cancer screening questionnaire in practice, refer patients for genetic counseling and/or testing, and do follow up. Participants are not only improving care and developing strategies that the FMEC will share with other clinics, they are also receiving 20 hours of CME and Family Medicine Performance Improvement (PI) Credits. To learn more, visit Hereditary Breast Cancer Quality Improvement Pilot Project.

• Cornerstone Care Teaching Health Center FMRP
• Greater Lawrence Family Health Center/Lawrence FMRP
• Heritage Valley FMRP
• Indiana Regional Medical Center Rural FMRP
• Lewis Gale Community and Family Medicine GME FMRP
• New York Medical College at Saint Joseph's FMRP
• St. Luke’s Miners Rural Family Medicine Residency Program
• Univ of Pittsburgh Medical Center McKeesport FMRP

Save the date: DPC Summit is June 20-23

Wherever you are in your direct primary care (DPC) journey, you'll find the expertise you need to reach the next level at DPC Summit, June 20–23, in Dallas, Texas. Don’t miss the chance to learn from nationally-recognized DPC faculty experts, access customized programming, and experience hands-on workshops to elevate your DPC knowledge and skills. The FMEC is a founding partner of the DPC Summit and presents it along with the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians, and the DPC Alliance.

Primary Care Collaborative calls for new Medicaid policies

High-quality primary care is critical to better population health and more equitable outcomes. Medicaid and CHIP cover nearly 90 million Americans, or roughly 1 in 4 Americans. By committing to new payment models, removing barriers, and supporting a whole-person approach to care, Medicaid and CHIP can help support primary care relationships that are designed to keep people healthy. In a new issue brief, the Primary Care Collaborative and its partners in the Better Health – NOW campaign lay out new policies that can be implemented in Medicaid and CHIP to increase access to primary care.

Get your discounts as an FMEC Partner or Member

Joining the FMEC as an individual or institution not only helps support the FMEC mission and promote family medicine, but it gives you tangible benefits and discounts. Later this spring, the FMEC will open registration for the 2024 Annual Meeting, and programs who are FMEC Partners receive $300 discounts on their Residency Fair booths, and individuals who join, or receive complimentary memberships through an FMEC Partner organization, receive $50-75 discounts on registration. Read more about FMEC Memberships and Partnerships now and join or renew. And don’t forget to watch the FMEC Special Edition email newsletter for job and fellowship openings from FMEC Silver Partners and above.

A hearty THANK YOU to the residency programs, medical schools, and health systems who have joined or renewed their FMEC partnerships. See the full list at FMEC Partners. The support of these FMEC partners is critical to the FMEC’s success.

A selection of upcoming family medicine and primary care meetings, nationally and in the FMEC region. If you have a meeting to be listed, please email jennifer.stamper@fmec.net.

February 20-24, 2024 - Association of Departments of Family Medicine (ADFM) Annual Conference, Palm Springs, CA

March 25-27, 2024 – AAFP Residency Leadership Summit/Association of Family Medicine Residency Directors (AFMRD), Kansas City, KS

March 27-31, 2024 – Student National Medical Association (SNMA) Annual Medical Education Conference, New Orleans, LA

April 4-7, 2024 – American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians (ACOFP) Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA

April 18-20, 2024 – AAFP Leadership Conference, Kansas City, MO

May 4-8, 2024 – STFM Annual Spring Conference, Los Angeles, CA

May 19-21, 2024 – AAFP Family Medicine Advocacy Summit, Washington, DC

May 30-June 1, 2024 – AMSA Annual Meeting, Arlington, VA

June 20-23, 2024 – Direct Primary Care Summit, Dallas, TX

August 1-3, 2024 – AAFP National Conference for Family Medicine Residents & Medical Students, Kansas City

September 15-18, 2024 – STFM Conference on Practice and Quality Improvement, Denver, CO

September 19-21, 2024 – FMEC Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA

September 24-28, 2024 – AAFP FMX, Phoenix, AZ