Group Highlights
STFM Groups are a vital part of the organization. Several groups submitted highlights of their activities in 2008-2009.
The Group on Adolescent Health Care is initiating development of a Web-supported, competency-based curriculum with an STFM Foundation grant. The AAFP Curricular Guidelines for adolescent health were recently updated and will be included as the outline for the new curriculum. The group plans to house this curriculum on the FMDRL and plan to include lectures, OSCE vignettes, and case discussions. An additional project will be to reexamine the status of adolescent health exposure across US family medicine residency programs. We are updating a survey that was conducted 10 years ago with residency program directors and will be sending this out again in 2009. Finally, we are working with our family medicine colleagues in SAM to develop a network of providers who can act as mentors for medical students and residents with an interest in family medicine and adolescent health.
The Group on Behavioral Science worked on the development of Core Principles for Behavioral Medicine and received endorsement by the the STFM Board of Directors.
The group also initiated of a national group medical visit survey, with more than 90 respondents to date. This is an ongoing project that the group plans to have more information on in the future.
The Group on Education Professionals in Family Medicine organized a seminar at the 2008 2008 STFM Annual Spring Conference in Baltimore, “Educational Principles for the Successful Use of Simulators in Family Medicine.” Presenters were group members George Bergus, MD, MEd; Julie Robbs, MA; LuAnne Stockton.
The Group on Ethics and Humanities has been collaborating with Helen Manson of Dundee University, Scotland, to produce, disseminate, and analyze a survey of the current state of bioethics education in US family medicine residency programs. A similar study was conducted in the UK, but there is nothing like this to date in the United States.
The Group on Family-centered Maternity Care continues to work on a listing of high-volume OB electives for residency training and developing educational materials for residency programs. Group members, Wendy Barr and Beth Choby, gave the Future of Family Medicine in Maternity Care Lecture at the Controversies in Childbirth Conference, Dallas, March 2009.
The Group on Family in Family Medicine has been working on the following initiatives: 1) Development of a preconference for the annual meeting to “Define Educational Priorities for the Family in Family Medicine, 2) Collaboration with the Group on Behavioral Science to create a survey exploring the faculty development/conference needs and interests for behavioral science faculty in family medicine, and 3) Participation in discussions with the Collaborative Family Healthcare Association regarding possibilities for collaboration, including programming/curriculum to presented at their annual meetings.
Members of the Group on Geriatrics participated in a project to define and disseminate geriatrics curricula for internal medicine/family medicine residencies sponsored by ABFM, SGIM, AGS, and the AMA.
The Group on Global Health presented the Gabriel Smilkstein Award at the 2009 Annual Spring Conference in Denver.
The Group on Health Policy and Access plan to have a table at the Annual Spring Conference Thursday morning breakfast and also a meeting Friday evening. Current Group Chair David Keahey, PA-C, MSPH will be sending out an e-mail to group members soon soliciting interest in the position of chair or co-chair of the group.
The Group on Hospital Medicine and Procedural Training has held annual winter summits in Phoenix since 2007. The 2008 summit focused on advanced training, and the the group has an article accepted in Family Medicine titled “Advanced Procedural Training in Family Medicine, A Consensus Statement” The 2009 Summit focused on the development of curricula for adult medicine, pediatric hospitalists as well as laborists. A discussion of a tiered system in obstetrical training was also held. Members of this group are currently working on articles for publication concerning these two topics. The Group has sponsored lectures at the STFM Annual Spring Conference. The 2008 presentations included: “Teaching Musculoskeletal Procedures: A Train the Trainer Seminar,” and “Innovative Models for Teaching Women’s Health Procedures, Inpatient Medicine and the Future of Family Medicine.”
The Group on Minority and Multicultural Health have organized and run writing workshops at four national conferences as 1-day preconference workshops. These workshops were funded by a STFM Foundation Group Project Fund Grant. The workshops have been led by invited speakers with expertise on writing as a person of color, writing when English is not the author's first language, and writing educational curriculum and research. The workshops have included brainstorming about factors that facilitate writing, paired writing exercises using the task of writing one's own letter of promotion, free writing exercises, writing about stressful experiences, exercises to identify one's "internal editor," work with journal editors about getting work published, structured exercises to advance a piece for publication, and small-group work on delineating "next tasks" in a writing project. The pattern was highly participatory with little down time, and the energy of the work together advanced throughout the day of each workshop. Informal feedback was highly complimentary, and some participants have continued to let us know of their successes with writing projects since completing the workshops.
The Group on Oral Health launched the second edition of Smiles for Life, with the addition of two new modules and two video clips for a procedure and an exam—all available on the Web site www.smilesforlife2.org/. Downloads continue at a furious pace—currently more than 69,000—with a broad range of groups using the material, but within our core constituency of residency programs more than 74% were aware of the Smiles for Life curriculum, and 65% reported using it in their residency program. The group continues to present the curricula in variety of settings—STFM (a variety of meetings), AAFP, AAMC, medical schools around the country, and two national invitation only meetings—The National Summit on Children's Oral Health and an Institutes of Medicine conference.
The Group on Osteopathic Family Medicine organized a preconference program on osteopathic medicine at the Annual Spring Conference in Denver. The group continues to see a growth in membership.
The Group on Pain Management and Palliative Care presented a preconference workshop at STFM Northeast Regional Meeting in October 2008 on “Caring for People With Chronic Pain and Addictions: Building Bridges That Strengthen the Healing Community,” and a workshop at Annual Spring Conference in Denver on “An Evidence-based Approach to Managing Patients With Chronic Pain Using the Chronic Care Model.” The group continues to address broad range of issues in regional and national efforts regarding pain assessment and management and corresponding concerns of addictions in primary care.
The Group on Rural Health reported the following activities:
• Group member Richard Pretorius was successful in receiving STFM Group Project funding for "Medical School Admission Policies and the Family Medicine Pipeline: Developing Practical Guidance Based on Analysis of Student Origins."
• The RME group developed an application process and is currently administering a pilot project in mentoring and technical assistance by and between rural medical educators under the sponsorship of HRSA and the Office of Rural Health Policy titled, “Peer Consultation for Rural Faculty and/or Program Enhancement.”
• Group members James Leeper, PhD, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa; Matt Hunsaker, MD, University of Illinois, Rockford; Joe Florence, MD, East Tennessee State University (ETSU); and James Boulger, PhD, University of Minnesota, Duluth, continue to work on the publication of a compendium of rural programs, “Undergraduate Rural Medical Education Program Development: Focus Group Consultation With the NRHA Rural Medical Educators Group,” and will be presenting at the NRHA Annual Meeting in Miami in May. The fourth annual winter RME Conclave for this purpose is currently being held at ETSU, hosted by Dr Florence in Johnson City, Tenn.
The Group on Teaching Research in Residency developed a Research Wiki. The Family Medicine Research Wiki is a Web-based document that is edited by members of the Group on Teaching Research in Residency and to which the public has unrestricted access. This wiki is a work-in-progress; we welcome group members to post tips and resources for doing family medicine research at all levels of training and expertise. Additionally, on behalf of the group, two groups members, Dean Seehusen and Sally Weaver have submitted a manuscript to Family Medicine titled “Resident Research in Family Medicine: Where Are We Now?” The Group on Teaching Research in Residency, along with the STFM Research Committee, provided two research sessions at the STFM 2009 Annual Conference in Denver. One session concerns basic statistics and the other survey writing.
The Group on Violence Education and Prevention received a STFM Group Project Fund Grant. Their project is “Current Trends in Medical Education in Identifying and Treating Patients Exposed to Domestic Violence.” The specific aims of this project will be to survey family medicine departments with regard to the training of faculty, residents, and medical students in the assessment of risks for abuse, neglect, and family and community violence within the framework of ACGME and RRC guidelines.
The Group on Women in Family Medicine has created a Women in Family Medicine Network Wiki within our group collaborative area on FMDRL. We invite interested members to contribute to the Wiki.
To find information on all STFM Groups, including group chair contacts, membership lists, and listserve availablility, go the the Groups Section on the STFM Web Site.