ACOFP Going Forward: Five Words to Remember

 

As osteopathic physicians, we are living in uncertain times. The changes in healthcare continues, and we are all trying to adapt to this new normal. The foundation upon which we stand keeps shifting when once that same foundation was stable. How we are educated, practice, get paid and certified continually require us all to keep adapting to our profession.

I feel this most acutely as a small-town doctor in Pearland, Texas. Like many of you, I struggle with all the electronic medical records that I must go through just to do my job. I want to treat my patients, not fill out medical records, although I realize it’s an important part of the job. I went into osteopathic family medicine to work with patients, touch my patients and heal them that way.

So now as your ACOFP president, I’m hoping to stabilize our profession by protecting our identity and our osteopathic distinctiveness as much as I can, to help you cope with all the changes that are happening today and those that you will confront in the future.

In that framework, I give you five words – growing, diverse, engaging, advocate and osteopathic – that I want you to remember going forward with the ACOFP.

Growing

Like the osteopathic profession, the ACOFP is increasing its membership. After a few years of stagnation and in some cases decline, the ACOFP membership jumped nearly seven percent in 2016. What accounts for such a jump? It’s likely due in part to the increase in new osteopathic physicians, but also our membership retention is about 90 percent every year.

Another growth indicator is our Annual Convention registration – at Las Vegas in 2015 we were at near-record attendance. At Puerto Rico in 2016 we would have experienced record attendance, but had to refund 180 registrations from those who were concerned with the Zika threat. This year in Kissimmee, Florida in March we had near-record registration. Our annual Intensive Update & Board Review course is pushing 350 registrants. Overall, more than 2,500 members attended live CME events in 2016.

From the American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians.

Diverse

The ACOFP values gender, ethnicity and age, size and type of practice, areas of expertise, such as policy, practice management and academics. For example, between 2012 and 2016, female membership increased by 10 percent. About 42 percent of member- ship is female today, and more than half of our resident and student members are female. The ACOFP Education and Research Foundation financially contributed to the PBS documentary: “The Feminine Touch: The History of Women in Osteopathic Medicine,” which will be released this year.

Engaging

The ACOFP is continually trying to engage our busy physicians. So, this year, the ACOFP is starting Special Interest Groups, called “SIGs.” These online communities will give likeminded physicians with specific interests’ greater opportunity to network and share ideas.

SIG areas of interest include:

• Direct Primary Care

• Diversity & Inclusion

  (LGBTQ Community & Ethnic Minorities)

• Men’s Health

• Military

• Osteopathic Principles and Practices

• Public Health and Wellness

• State Society Leaders

• Women in Medicine

• Young Physicians

To join a SIG, access your online ACOFP member profile and check a box based on your area of interest.

Advocate

The ACOFP is actively lobbying legislators, regulators and the Trump Administration. Recently, the ACOFP sent a letter to the Trump Administration and Congress expressing its desire to ensure that family medicine be a central focus of any healthcare system reform.

Also, ACOFP is involved in the sponsorship of Family Medicine for America’s Health and its media initiative called “Health is Primary” that seeks to promote the primacy of family medicine. We want the public to know family medicine is the backbone of the U.S. health-care system.

Osteopathic

The ACOFP is committed to the fundamental principles of osteopathic medicine. The ACOFP Journal – Osteopathic Family Physician – is one way we do that. It’s distinctively osteopathic with articles writing by members.

 

We are also creating a new package called “Essentials for Osteopathic Education and Recognition in Family Medicine,” which is a compilation of OMT videos, the ACOFP textbook, sample residency curriculum, apps and other training resources.

This hub of osteopathic content also will be available to allopathic training programs that now have a greater incentive to recruit DO students who want to continue their osteopathic training into residency.

So, I hope these five words help you realize that the future is bright for osteopathic family physicians even though we are living such changing times. The ACOFP will be there for during these times, helping you every step of the way.

 

Rodney M. Wiseman, DO, FACOFP dist. 2017 -2018 ACOFP President