President's Report
by Terrence E. Steyer, MD
It has been my privilege and honor to serve STFM as their president over the past year. It has been one of the busiest times in the history of STFM with the launch of many new programs and initiatives and the passage of a health care reform bill. All of these will have a long-lasting impact on STFM and its members.
During the past year, I have discussed the importance of using our acronym as a guide to the year: STFM for STFM. I will complete this theme in my annual report by organizing it according to our acronym.
Strategically plan…and use it: This was the first year of our new strategic plan. Our four indicators of success are:
- STFM is seen as the go-to resource and authority for family medicine education across the curriculum, thereby attracting and necessitating membership by all family medicine educators.
- Relationships developed through STFM are essential to the members’ professional well-being, vitality, and growth.
- STFM leads the improvement of the quality of patient care in teaching sites through innovation and scholarship.
- STFM is financially independent, has ample resources to meet its goals, and teaches its members how to help their local organizations become financially independent.
The STFM Board is using these indicators to organize our business agendas and trying to make sure that each decision we make is guided by these principles. We will continue to use these in the future and will evaluate our success on a bi-annual basis.
Team with others: As the journey to the passage of health care reform unveiled, it was obvious how important it was to be part of a team and how each member of the team is needed to help accomplish the final goal. STFM has worked hard this year in developing relationships with other organizations to help achieve our goals. These include:
• Changing the name of Predoctoral Education to Medical Student Education: While “predoc” was the common vocabulary within STFM since its inception, the term is not commonly used by other organizations or even other departments in medical schools. Upon the recommendation of the Group on Predoctoral Education, the STFM Board decided to change the name of Predoctoral Education in all of our work to Medical Student Education. This name change will become more evident over the next year.
• Continued to develop the Council of Academic Family Medicine (CAFM) and hosted the Family Medicine Working Party: These meetings ensure that family medicine is speaking with one voice and allows leaders of family medicine organizations to discuss topics of importance to our discipline.
• Renewed our partnership with the National AHEC Organization: We renewed our commitment to work with the National AHEC Organization around the goal of creating a sufficient family medicine workforce. Our plans include continuing to dialogue with the NAO around issues of mutual interest and to expand our partnership as appropriate.
• Explored family medicine’s relationship with the Veteran’s Affairs system: CAFM was approached by the leadership of health care services within the VA to discuss the relationship of family medicine with the VA. There is hope for an expanding presence of family medicine within their health care system, and we will continue to explore this relationship.
• Increased dialogue with the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC): Recognizing the importance of the AAMC in academic medicine, STFM is working to improve our relationship with the AAMC. John Prescott, Chief Academic Officer, was a keynote speaker at our Predoctoral Education Conference and met with STFM leaders after his presentation. Leaders also met with Joanne Conroy, Chief Healthcare Officer; Atul Grover, Chief Advocacy Officer; and Ann Bonham, Chief Scientific Officer. Finally, a summit was held with Darrel Kirch, president of the AAMC, to explore ways to make this relationship even stronger.
Facilitate the development of future leaders: To continue our success, we need to develop the next generation of family medicine leaders. As the first “Generation 3” president of a family medicine organization, I clearly recognize the need to develop other leaders within the upcoming generations of family physician educators. To help accomplish this goal, STFM is launching the Emerging Leaders Program. The goal of this program is to provide a structured experience for self-identified individuals who want to develop their leadership skills. Working with a mentor, individuals will complete a project centered on the work of one of STFM’s groups. The first class for this program will be recruited at the 2010 annual meeting. Another program that was established this year is the Behavioral Science Educators Fellowship. This fellowship will help behavioral science professionals develop their teaching skills and curricular development skills. The first 12 fellows will participate at our 2010 Annual Spring Conference.
Motivate more family medicine advocates: As this past year demonstrated, advocates for family medicine are essential to making sure that our needs are met in the legislative process. While we have an incredible legislative affairs staff, their work is made easier when members of Congress have relationships with constituents in their district. STFM members were critical to the health care reform process and led to the inclusion of many family medicine principles in the final legislation. However, more work is needed in this area. To accomplish this goal, STFM is developing an Advocacy Curriculum. This curriculum will include readings, small-group activities, and video components. Once complete, we hope that this will allow advocacy to be included in both medical student and residency education.