39th Annual Conference 2006 Candidates Position Statements

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STFM Candidates Offer Position Statements for Upcoming Election

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President-Elect

Crystal Cash, MD
Cook County-Loyola-Provident FMRP, Chicago

In my early interactions with the health care system, I witnessed a system of marginal care with reduced resources and uncaring, distant providers. As an undergrad, I worked in a migrant health clinic, in rural Wisconsin. In the summer, this town became the lifeline to a caravan of migrant farm workers. We provided the only care that some of the workers and their families received all year. I went out with the community outreach person to visit the camps and saw firsthand what conditions are for the very poor. These experiences shaped the type of physician I am today.

I am a graduate of University of Illinois School of Medicine and Cook County Hospital Family Medicine Residency and fellowship. I became faculty at the University of Illinois during a time of curricular change and as its first program director, I was fortunate to participate on the medical school curriculum committee for the development of the family medicine clerkship, longitudinal primary care curriculum, and family medicine residency.

I returned to the county system when Provident, a historically black hospital, was reopened as a community-based county hospital. I am chair of the Department of Family Medicine and program director for the Cook County-Loyola-Provident Family Medicine Residency. As an active member in the Illinois Academy, I have served on the board. I am a member of the IDPH FMR Act Advisory Committee, Illinois Violence Prevention Advisory Committee, and the CDC Lead and Pregnancy Work Group. My interests are in community and maternal-child health.

In STFM, I served as cochair of the Group on Minority Health, as a member of the Education and Program Committees, and as chair of the Program Committee. I worked with the Board.

My husband, Bodhi, my five children ages 35, 22, 19, 16, and 10, and grandson have always been supportive of my professional endeavors.

Position Statement

STFM provides family physicians with the foundation and mentoring needed to move forward in all of the academic settings of its constituents. There is a sense of community and teamwork across disciplines that is missing or not valued in other organizations. STFM advances toward its goals despite the challenges of developing and implementing the requirements of regulatory bodies, funding reductions, and changes in the demographics of patients and members. The vision of STFM is clearly articulated in both their participation in the Future of Family Medicine project and the Society’s Strategic Plan. These documents require careful reflection of the past and innovative problem solving for the future. The Board needs to stay energetic and progressive, with a focus on the needs of the membership. The term “scanning the environment” takes on meaning for the Society when looking at academic, clinical, and legislative changes that are continuous and evolving. Every day there are more families across socioeconomic lines making decisions about the affordability of health care. Anticipating the problems that this will present to the health care system and having a workforce capable of caring for them will continue to be the challenge facing our leadership. STFM must advocate both for the New Model practice and accessibility of services for everyone, everywhere. STFM as a leader in the medical academic community must continue to forward this agenda.

I have experience working in environments that have challenged me to meet the demands now facing STFM. To this end, I am committed to maintaining the high standards that have been set. I am humbled by this nomination. STFM has guided me through my development as an educator over the past 17 years and is my academic home. I would be honored to serve as president-elect and sincerely ask for your support and assistance.

John Rogers, MD, MPH, MEd
Baylor College of Medicine

I am an academician because I like exploring ideas and developing projects. I am an educator since I value helping people grow and teaching concepts that can guide learners throughout their careers. I am a clinician to partner with people about their health.

My perspective on medicine and medical education has been shaped by studying and working in different regions of the country-college and medical school in Iowa, residency in North Carolina, fellowship in Washington, and faculty positions in New Jersey and Texas. Here in Houston, I am a generalist in the world’s largest medical center, filled with subspecialists, yet I have thrived professionally.

My involvement in STFM started 23 years ago with the Decision Making and Research Development Task Forces. I have been a member of the Family in Family Medicine Task Force and chair of a Special Task Force on Clinical Policies. I also served on the Research Committee for 8 years, with 4 of those as committee chair and member of the Board of Directors. In 2004, I was elected secretary-treasurer and became chair of the Future of Family Medicine Special Task Force in 2005.

Since 1987, I have been at Baylor College of Medicine where I am professor of family and community medicine (FCM) and vice chair for education. I lead the UME Competency Subcommittee, which wrote Baylor’s MD Core Competency Graduation Goals, administers the third-year Clinical Performance Examination, and assesses student achievement of the competencies. I work closely with my wife, Jane Corboy, MD, associate professor and FCM director of Graduate Education, who heads the GME Competencies Subcommittee.

Jane and I enjoy an active lifestyle of running (22 marathons and counting), hiking/camping, whitewater rafting, and mountaineering (Shasta and Kilimanjaro done - Aconcagua in February 2006). We are savoring Jane’s daughter’s senior year in high school.

Position Statement

STFM members have varied interests, which we must support, yet I believe that organizations make substantial advances when they focus their efforts on a few initiatives. As STFM president, I would emphasize core Future of Family Medicine (FFM) programs.

My vision for STFM’s future stems from the AAMC president’s challenges, STFM’s Strategic Goals, and the Priority Programs of STFM’s FFM Special Task Force (STF) (Messenger 2005;25(5):1). The AAMC president challenged medical educators to increase the racial and ethnic diversity of the medical profession, enlarge the capacity of LCME-accredited medical schools, lead the transformation of the health care system, and strengthen the continuum of medical education. While STFM’s core Strategic Goal is to provide faculty development, we also seek to eliminate disparity, improve quality of care, and define the roles of family physicians. Successful implementation of the FFM STF Priority Program on premedical school recruitment will address diversity issues and take advantage of enlarging medical school classes to increase the pipeline of family medicine students. Similarly, the STF Priority Programs on the New Model can contribute to transformed practice, improved quality of care, and reinvigorated roles for family physicians.

We next must have a concerted initiative at the center of the medical education continuum-residency training. The FFM Project report asserts that “training of future family physicians will require a culture of innovation and experimentation to identify and evaluate new educational approaches” and offers guidelines for changes, especially 4-year residency programs. It is unlikely that individual residency programs will accomplish these experiments by working independently. We need a coordinated effort to support innovations and evaluate their effectiveness. I endorse the call for a Summit Conference on Residency Education for the Future (Fam Med 2005;37(9):635-8).

I am honored by this nomination and would like the opportunity to work toward this vision for STFM.

Secretary-Treasurer

Patricia Lebensohn, MD
University of Arizona

My professional career has been enriched by working in diverse settings in different roles, all with a common thread: my passion for teaching and caring for underserved populations. I grew up in Argentina during a turbulent political time and attended medical school in the darkest years of the military regime. In 1987, after finishing my residency training in psychiatry and family therapy, I moved to Syracuse, NY, where I worked as a family therapist and met my first STFM mentor, Macaran Baird, MD, chair of family medicine, who encouraged me to retrain in family medicine.

After I finished my residency at St. Joseph’s Health Center in Syracuse in 1993, I took a faculty position at the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Arizona. I fell in love with the desert and the diverse faculty and patient population we care for. I taught in different roles in the College of Medicine. In the family medicine residency, I created and implemented new curriculum and programs: a Longitudinal Behavioral Health Curriculum, and as the associate residency director restructured the core teaching and the community medicine experience. Presently, I am the program director and associate clinical chair. In this position I was able to create tracks for a 4-year residency; in sports medicine, a Master in Public Health, and integrative medicine.

I still have an active clinical practice with an emphasis in women’s health and refugee and underserved populations. I am very thankful for the opportunities to work in groups and committees in STFM. I served 2 years on the Steering Committee for the Conference on Families and Health and 4 years on the Program Committee.

I spend my free time outdoors, running, swimming, biking, or hiking and practice yoga regularly. My two young adult children, Florencia and Federico, are still a big part of my life and we do fun traveling together.

Position Statement

The Society of Teachers of Family Medicine provides mentorship and faculty development, reflects the diversity of ideas that are at the core of family medicine, and embodies the spirit of service through commitment to teaching and support for changes needed for the specialty to thrive in this ever-changing environment. There have been many challenges for family medicine in the past few years. I am proud of the way our specialty turned these challenges into opportunities for change with the help of the framework of the Future of Family Medicine. As the secretary-treasurer, I will bring my passion for service. This service is reflected in my work as a clinician and as the program director, by creating learning and healing environments for diverse learners, peers, and patients.

I support wholeheartedly the work that STFM is doing with the Future of Family Medicine recommendation to “Promote a Sufficient Family Medicine Workforce.” I believe that investing resources in recruiting competent medical students from diverse backgrounds and creating training programs that will prepare them to serve the needs of our different communities is paramount for the growth of our specialty.

For the past 16 years, I have had the privilege of benefiting from all that STFM gives its membership, and I am honored to be nominated to serve as the secretary-treasurer on the Board.

Harry Strothers III, MD, MMM
Morehouse School of Medicine

My life has been greatly influenced by family members who helped me learn about servant leadership and by mom, an RN, who taught me how to care for people.

I serve as associate chair for academic programs and clinical associate professor of family medicine at the Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM). I also serve as geriatric team leader for the National Center for Primary Care at MSM.

STFM and the members who have become friends have been very important to me. The STFM Preceptor Education Project helped show me to how to be an effective teacher and started my relationship with STFM. I have served as a member, then chair, of the Program Committee and a member of the Education Committee. I recently finished serving as chair of Annual Meeting Planning Committees for both the AAFP and the Georgia Academy of Family Physicians.

After medical school and residency at the University of Maryland, I started practice at a rural National Health Service Corps site in South Carolina. Once there, I started precepting for the University of South Carolina at the CHC and FPC. After teaching part time for about 9 years, I joined MSM in 1994.

At MSM, I served as residency director for 8 years, FPC medical director, and acting department chair. In 2000, I was honored to be named Family Practice Educator of the Year by the GAFP. I served as the principal investigator for two Graduate Training Grants from HRSA. I have also been an investigator on AHRQ and NIMH grants.

I have a CAQ in geriatrics, a Certificate in Medical Management from the American College of Physician Executives and Tulane University, and a Masters in Medical Management from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.

Karen and I have been married for 25 years and have two children, Shaw and Carrie, both in college.

Position Statement

I used to get angry when I heard the phrase “No margin, no mission.” When I first heard it, I was an idealistic kid who didn’t understand why people in America couldn’t get the medical care they needed regardless of their ability to pay. The phrase frequently seemed to be used to justify reducing service, reducing quality of care, or not addressing the needs of uninsured or underinsured people.

I still cringe when the phrase is misused but learned in my first job after residency as a rural health center medical director how much medical supplies cost and how hard it is to provide care with limited resources. Over the years, I gained experience and obtained a Masters in Medical Management. Both have helped me find, create, and manage resources to assist the people I serve.

I’m excited that the family of family medicine has gotten together to work on projects like the Annals of Family Medicine, the Future of Family Medicine project, and the New Model of Care. Having been a member of STFM, NAPCRG, AFMRD, AAFP, and (briefly) ADFM, it is clear that we are all committed to healthy people, families, and communities and quality care.

STFM and its members have been leaders in many aspects of medical education and will continue this leadership as the New Model of Care is further developed, tested, and taught to our students and colleagues.

The leadership of STFM needs to continue to be fiscally responsible, while looking for and creating resources to meet the needs of faculty at all levels, including preceptors and residency faculty. I would be honored to serve the Society as secretary-treasurer and help continue to find resources and innovative ways to research, implement, and teach the care our patients and students will need in the future.

Member-at-Large

Donald Kollisch, MD
Dartmouth Medical School

As a student activist during my college and medical school years, and a brief career as a junior high teacher, I developed a commitment to family and to a feminist model of social change. During residency in Rochester, NY, I fell in love with a fellow intern, Pat Glowa, and together we started a rural practice in a farming community in northern New Hampshire. While providing cradle-to-grave medicine for an underserved population (and helping to raise our children), I acknowledged my love of education and was lured into part-time academia as clerkship director for the Dartmouth Medical School for 8 years.

Moving from New England to North Carolina, I was director of medical student programs for UNC-Chapel Hill, helping to establish a state-wide Teaching Program, working closely with AHEC and the State’s Office of Rural Health. While there I gained a broader portfolio of academic skills and moved back north in 1995 to help Pat establish Dartmouth’s new family medicine residency. Over the next few years, I was medical director of our residency practice, directed a faculty development program, developed a strong rural health program,-and after the sad demise of our residency in 2001 (now that’s a story!)-started a program in International Health. I am also director of Dartmouth’s Practice-based Research Network.

I’ve been active in STFM since my first meeting in 1983. My sole elected office was as a founding leader of the Predoctoral Directors Group, but I have actively participated in a number of other groups and projects, including faculty development and rural health. Regionally, I’ve been active in our state Academy, including a recent term as president.

I know the life, stresses, and rewards of “real” practice; I’ve held just about every job in a family medicine department and I hope to have the opportunity to serve STFM.

Position Statement

The core dynamic tension for academic family physicians is that we must be both visionary and practical. Our roots are deeply embedded in idealism and in service to the underserved; and in the trunk of our family medicine tree, we can see the powerful rings of compassion and skills in education and research. But the survival of the branches of our specialty is threatened by a national non-system of health finance that is increasingly bankrupt in both dollars and spirit. Our unique challenge is that we must not only LIVE our specialty but also teach it, promote it, and advance it intellectually. We face the challenge of continued low interest by US allopathic medical students in our specialty, which leads inexorably to a continued low interest by our graduating residents in the pressing needs of our urban and rural underserved settings.

But the picture is not at all gloomy. In addition to our traditional great strengths of commitment to individuals, communities, and competency, we have new models in the Future of Family Medicine, new technologies from Institute for Healthcare Improvement (and others), and a wonderful lineage of strong leadership. I deeply hold an evidence-based belief that family medicine’s vision of a health care system-whose foundation is the relationship between every patient and their primary care physician-most closely matches the vision and needs of the people of the United States.

I am passionately committed to working with you to solve the problems that we face in our communities and academies, and I think that STFM is the ideal place for me to work. Thank you very much for your support.

Deborah Witt, MD
Thomas Jefferson University

My decision to pursue a career in medicine was inspired by my childhood experiences with my pediatrician, who always encouraged me to succeed, despite early challenges in my life. Growing up in a close-knit small town motivated me to concentrate my extracurricular activities on community service, the central focus of my career, and become a physician that the public would embrace as a teacher, advocate, and mentor.

After my training at Hahnemann University, I completed my residency and Faculty Development Fellowship at Thomas Jefferson University. At Jefferson, I am currently an assistant professor and cultural competency/diversity coordinator in the Department of Family and Community Medicine. I also serve as director of The Jackson Scholars Family Medicine Track, which mentors minority students interested in practicing in underserved communities. My academic emphasis is on predoctoral and residency training in cultural competency regarding patient care. For instance, working with freshman medical students in a small-group atmosphere allows me to lay the foundation for the importance of cultural competency in a non-intimidating setting. In the clinical setting, I encourage students and residents to explore their reactions and recognize the challenges in caring for patients from different backgrounds, of religion, ethnicity, gender, and/or socioeconomic status.

My research interests include minority health disparities and improved diversity among health care professionals. In addition, as a special population investigator with NIH/NCI/Center to Reduce Cancer Health Disparities, I have explored an African American community’s assessment of a decision education tool regarding clinical trials and recognized the value of collaboration between communities and academic health centers.

Over the past 7 years, my commitment to the community as a leader in faith-based health care initiatives has broadened internationally to include the coordination of medical care of families in the impoverished areas of Acapulco, Mexico and Montego Bay, Jamaica.

Position Statement

My introduction to STFM, which began as a fellow in 1998, has positively influenced my career. I have learned the importance of scholarly activity, collegiality, networking, mentorship, and balance. My involvement in STFM has also helped to cultivate my passion for teaching. As an STFM New Faculty Scholar Awardee, cochair of the Group on Minority Health (1999-2001) and Membership Committee member (2000-2004), I came to understand better the depths within family medicine’s mission and STFM’s goal to “improve the health of all people through education, research, patient care, and advocacy.” Throughout, my professional career has been influenced by excellent STFM members who fostered a passion to teach, a will to share, and a desire to mentor a junior faculty member.

In addition to supporting established initiatives and programs, my goal is to provide a unique perspective to the Board that will enhance STFM as a premier academic organization. I believe my area of expertise will benefit the Board and allow me to contribute to STFM’s goals of developing plans to promote a diverse student body, increasing the number of underrepresented minority faculty in family medicine, and developing teaching modules on ethnic disparities in health. With the advent of cultural competency training requirements for licensure in several states, I will assist in incorporating this area of knowledge into new educational programs and curricula.

My familiarity with faith-based organizations and initiatives will assist the Board and general membership in providing care for diverse populations and in creating interventions tailored specifically for local, national, and international underserved populations.

I am honored and excited by the nomination and enthusiastically welcome the opportunity to hold the position of member-at-large. Your support is appreciated, and I look forward to being an advocate for and a liaison between the Board and the members of STFM.

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