-George C Scott

Those words reflect the spirit of our nation and our communities in the face of tragedy in Boston, Texas and the flooding in Illinois.  Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone touched by these events and the many health care and safety personnel who are providing comfort, care and security during these times.

DEADLINE MAY 1 - Looking for the next leaders

Would you like to represent the family medicine residents of Illinois and be the voice of the future of family medicine? Apply for a leadership role in the IAFP! Just complete the application form (Resident or Student), update your CV and e-mail both to Ginnie Flynn at gflynn@iafp.com by May 1, 2013.  This is a two-year commitment.

The job description for the president-elect position for resident and student: (Click on the links to access the applications)

Serve as the Illinois delegate to the AAFP's National Congress of Resident/Student Members August 1-3 in Kansas City. *NOTE: Funding from IAFP is not available for travel expenses to National Conference. Travel would be at the expense of the resident or student delegate or his/her program.  Apply for an AAFP scholarship by May 1 to offset the travel costs!  Link to scholarship application information on the AAFP web site.  Please note, different scholarships have different requirements - including some that require an essay from YOU! 

Residency Programs

There is so much going on with IAFP and we want to make sure your residents know all they can do an access as members.  Would you like an IAFP leader to visit your residency program?  Email Ginnie Flynn at gflynn@iafp.com with possible dates/time and she'll work on scheduling a visit for you. 

Spring into Action - 3 days in Springfield

IAFP members from all stages of medicine traveled to Springfield to talk health care with their legislators during three days of the IAFP Spring into Action lobby days April 16, 17, and 18.  Each day brought a cross section of family medicine expertise, from medical students to past presidents and everyone in-between.  This year we welcomed so many advocates from the residencies and medical schools.  Your efforts are so important in building support for the family medicine workforce among our lawmakers. 

Special thanks to the Northwestern-McGaw program for sending residents all three days (but the Day 3 group was unable to go to Springfield due to the floodwaters).  Kudos and thanks to U. of Chicago FMIG leader Gabby Liu and advisor Mari Egan, MD for bringing the busload of U of Chicago students and NorthShore residents (and providing a ride to UIC's Aaron Goldstein) and to Janet Albers, MD of SIU-Springfield family medicine residency program for bringing a great group of advocates.  Hinsdale was represented by Rachel Klamo, MD and Roseanne Vasiloff, MD; Asim Jaffer, MD represented the U of I at Peoria residency program and program director Mark Potter, MD represented the UIC Family Medicine Residency Program.  Loyola medical school Class of 2013 Dr. Kristy Mount also met with lawmakers before she goes to residency training in Indiana this summer.

Rep. Kenneth Dunkin high-fives Dr. Kortnee Roberson

Here are some facts and figures for the three days:

• 59 total attendees, including practicing family physicians, board members, residents and medical students
• Visited with 29 legislators over three days
• Met with House Republican Leader Tom Cross and Asst. Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie

Because many bills were on third reading or had already cleared their chamber of origin, family medicine had plenty of active issues to discuss with senators and representatives.  After a morning briefing on the current issues, members sloshed through the rain to the capitol building for direct conversations with their legislators. On the family medicine advocacy agenda: 

• Supporting science-based sexual health education standards in public schools for grades 6-12,
• Opposing prescribing authority for psychologists,
• Urging the House to pass Senate Bill 26 for the Medicaid eligibility expansion,
• Supporting legislation Prohibiting tanning bed use for minors,
• Opposing waivers to allow schools to exempt physical education requirements for students who participate in show choir and
• Supporting a Senate bill requiring that all college campuses become 100 percent smoke-free.  

A complete recap will be in the May-June issue of Illinois Family Physician. 

You can check out photos on our Facebook Page

Tuesday's photos and then Wednesday and Thursday photos on Facebook

Special thanks to our lobbying firm of Cook-Witter, Inc. and their intern Tyler Scherer for facilitating the legislative visits and briefing our participants on the legislative process and to AARP Illinois for allowing us to use their conference room.  We also were joined by Amber Melaney, AAFP's Strategist in State Government Relations who offered a national perspective on states' legislative trends and provided much appreciated on-site support!

The 2013 results and the continued good news for family medicine demonstrate that we must continue to trumpet family medicine and build on our efforts to grow the future family medicine workforce.  Our upcoming Family Medicine Midwest conference, October 4-6 in Milwaukee provides a tremendous and tangible opportunity for Midwestern residency programs and medical schools to collaborate on the shared mission of providing a strong primary care workforce to reduce the shortages currently predicted by many expert groups.  

Would you like to be a presenter at Family Medicine Midwest?  View the Call for Abstracts and submit your ideas online by May 10.   Complete information is all on the conference web site at www.iafp.com/fmm.  Online registration will be available in May.

Students can apply for a scholarship now online.

The IAFP is serving as the meeting manager for the first-ever conference of this new 12-state alliance.  The Family Medicine Midwest Collaborative includes:  Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin.   

Pertussis Update release from the Chicago Dept. of Public Health

CDPH released this report on Thursday, April 18 that emphasizes the dramatic increase in cases identified nationally and in Chicago and the impact of pertussis on young infants.

National Infant Immunization Week is a national observance that highlights the importance of protecting infants from vaccine preventable diseases, which is being celebrated from April 20^th through April 27^th. CDPH is holding local activities to celebrate National Infant Immunization Week (NIIW), including vaccination clinics at Chicago Public Schools on April 27^th

AAFP Leadership Opportunities

AAFP student and resident leadership position information for 2013 is now on the Getting Involved in Your Academy section of the AAFP web site. A flier is also provided describing the different elected and appointed positions and includes a leadership grid that outlines information about each position, including length of term and travel requirements. If you are planning to attend the AAFP National Conference Aug 1-3 or have interests in national leadership involvement start thinking about it now.     Some appointed positions require that interested students and residents to complete and return the application materials to the chapter - for Illinois that's Ginnie Flynn at gflynn@iafp.com. However, if you plan to run for an elected position, your materials (i.e., application, CV, and letters) are due to AAFP by July 12, 2013.

AIM-HI Childhood Obesity Project of Family Medicine Residency Grants

MetLife Foundation has awarded the Americans In Motion - Healthy Interventions (AIM-HI) initiative funding to distribute grants in the amount of $10,000 to $30,000 to Family Medicine Residency Programs (FMRPs). Ten to 18 FMRPs will be selected to develop family-centered community projects designed to reduce childhood obesity and promote fitness for the entire family.   Learn more on AAFP's web site.

Download the grant application.

Application deadline is Friday, May 31, 2013. 

If you have a news item to share, email it to Ginnie Flynn at gflynn@iafp.com.

IAFP President Carrie Nelson, MD authored an Op-Ed for Crain's Chicago Business that appeared online April 18 and will be in Monday's print edition.  You can view it online here.  Nelson calls attention to our family medicine workforce pipeline problems in Illinois and urges more support for primary care to ensure access for all newly insured Illinoisans coming into the system starting in 2014.

Jocelyn Hirschmann, MD, a Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine graduate from Bolingbrook, was working at the finish line of the Boston Marathon when the bombs went off.  She told her story to the Chicago Sun-Times who ran a story on April 18.

Eric Trautmann, MD was on WREX TV.com April 9^th explaining how healthier doctors could better convince patients to adopt healthier lifestyles.

On April 10, Yasmeen Ansari, MD of Wood Dale and Arvind Goyal, MD (who is the current Medicaid Director for the IL Dept. of Healthcare and Family Services) are quoted in a Crain's    Chicago Business story about the need to keep Medicaid payments equal to Medicare in order for doctors to continue or increase Medicaid participation.  That article helped lead to the IAFP Op-Ed column on April 18.

Dawn Brunner, MD was back live on WCIA-TV in Champaign on April 9 for "Ask your Family Physician."

Goutham Rao, MD is featured in the April 10 Evanston Roundtable where he spoke about the need to cut the sweet drinks as a tool to fight obesity.

On March 19, Tony Miksanek, MD of Benton was interviewed on WSIU Radio (91.9 FM) about children's health and exercise. On March 6, Dr. Miksanek appeared on WQRL Radio (106.3) and discussed the health of the southern Illinois region.

John Hickner, MD, head, department of family medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago, and Margaret Kirkegaard, MD, chair of the IAFP Government Relations Committee, attended the April 8^th kick-off meeting for the new Illinois state project, Provider/Plan/Payer Alliance for Health, which has an aggressive schedule to develop a multi-payer (Medicare, Medicaid and commercial) pilot project by September 30, 2013.  The project is a Model Design grant from the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation for the development of a state health care innovation plan.