STFM Recognition Award

The 2007 Recognition Award winner, Joseph Hobbs, MD, has made important and sustained contributions to family medicine education at the undergraduate, graduate, and continuing medical education levels.

Dr Hobbs is professor and the Joseph W. Tollison, MD, Distinguished Chair of the Department of Family Medicine and vice dean for Primary Care and Community Affairs at the Medical College of Georgia’s (MCG).

Dr Hobbs joined the faculty in the Department of Family Medicine at MCG in 1978, where he has served in various roles, including family medicine residency program director, predoctoral education and clerkship director, and family medicine inpatient service director. He developed a family medicine clerkship educational network of 19 full-time teaching sites serving approximately 180 medical students per year throughout the state of Georgia in group private practices in small, rural Georgia communities and associated hospitals, community family medicine residency programs, and community health centers.

Within STFM, he served as a member of the Education Committee and chair of the STFM Conference on Predoctoral Education. e helped develop the Family Medicine Clerkship Curriculum, and most importantly, he served two terms on the STFM Board—as member-at-large and as president.

He currently serves as a director of the American Board of Family Medicine and its Executive Committee. He is on the Board of Directors of the Association of Departments of Family Medicine, and he is a member of the Council on Graduate Medical Education. He has served as a clerkship consultant to several medical schools and as a consultant to the National Board of Medical Examiners. He has been a tireless advocate for family medicine in efforts to improve the NBME Family Medicine Subject Exam.

STFM Excellence in Education Award

The 2007 Excellence in Education Award winner, Anita Taylor, MAEd, is associate professor in the Department of Family Medicine at Oregon Health & Science University. She receives this award for her outstanding contributions to family medicine education, especially in the areas of student interest and faculty development.

Since 1984, she has been the faculty liaison to the OHSU Program of Excellence award-winning Family Medicine Interest Group. She also has been director of the Family Medicine Volunteer Faculty for 15 years. As a member of the Dean’s Office, she serves as the director of Career Advising for the 480 medical students at OHSU and OHSU Liaison to the Association of American Medical Colleges Careers in Medicine program. She was selected by her OHSU faculty peers to receive the OHSU Excellence in Education Award for Teaching in 2000.
           
She has been a member of the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine since 1978, serving on the Program and Faculty Development committees.  In recognition of her contributions to the American Academy of Family Physicians and family medicine education, Anita was awarded Honorary Membership in the AAFP in October 2004. She received the Oregon Academy of Family Physicians’ President’s Recognition Award in 1999 and again in 2004.
           
The author of the book How to Choose a Medical Specialty, currently in its fourth edition, and a recognized authority on medical specialty choice, Ms. Taylor has been an invited speaker at national and international medical education meetings. She has served as a visiting professor at 24 medical schools and family medicine residency programs in the United States, South America, Europe, and Asia.

STFM Innovative Program Award

Smiles for Life: A National Oral Health Curriculum received the 2007 Innovative Program Award for its collaborative approach to development, broad national impact in addressing a pressing public health need, and model funding network. It is both an innovative and unique contribution.

Smiles for Life is a comprehensive oral health curriculum for physicians developed by the STFM Group on Oral Health. It is designed to be implemented in either residencies or medical schools.
The curriculum is based on five PowerPoint modules covering core areas of oral health—Module 1: The relationship of oral and systemic health; Module 2: Child oral health; Module 3: Adult oral health; Module 4: Dental emergencies; and Module 5: Oral Health and the Pregnant Patient. Each module is designed to be presented in 50 minutes. Each slide is annotated with speaker notes and relevant references. The curriculum was initially distributed on CD-Rom to all family medicine departments and residencies, It has also been downloaded from FMDRL more than 5,000 times.

A variety of supporting materials are included with the curriculum. These include a comprehensive set of educational objectives based on the ACGME competencies, test questions, resources for further learning, and an implementation guide that includes a detailed outline of the modules. Pocket cards and PDA applications summarizing key point-of-care information on child oral health, adult oral health, and dental emergencies are also available, as are patient education posters suitable for exam or waiting room display.

The Steering Committee for this project is Alan Douglass, MD (Editor and Group Cochair); Wanda Gonsalves, MD; Russell Maier, MD (Group Cochair); Hugh Silk, MD; Nancy Stevens, MD, MPH; James Tysinger, PhD; A. Stevens Wrightson, MD.

STFM Advocate Award

The WWAMI Network of Family Medicine Residencies received the 2007 Advocate Award for the creation of an advocacy network for legislative issues of concern to WWAMI residency programs.

In 2004, under the aegis of Harold Johnston, MD, then president of the WWAMI network, and Nancy Stevens, MD, director of the Network, the 17 directors of the residency programs that comprise the University of Washington’s five-state network (Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho) developed a strategic plan and then turned the plan into reality. This network has already experienced success in its legislative endeavors and is actively pursuing additional legislative goals. The process for establishing this network has been clearly outlined by WWAMI and is available for replication and/or modification by other like-minded groups. This network serves as a model for other groups or organizations to develop an advocacy agenda and implement an advocacy strategy.

Two of the most important goals of the strategic plan were to begin effective legislative advocacy through a structured legislative committee, and to explore collaboration with the community health centers  around development of a new kind of education health center for family medicine residency training.

The development of a legislative committee, chaired by Ted Epperly, MD, and Ardis Davis, MSW, as well as a communication process for that committee, was instrumental in their legislative success. Cooperation and assistance from researchers at the University of Washington, allowed the directors to develop and use a white paper outlining the opportunities for collaboration between WWAMI and Community Health Center (CHC) organizations.

The early successes and ongoing efforts are a testament to the value of such work.

F. Marian Bishop Leadership Award

The F. Marian Bishop Award of the STFM Foundation was established in 1990 to honor individuals who have significantly enhanced the academic credibility of family medicine by a sustained, long-term commitment to family medicine in an academic setting, The 2007 recipients were Robert Taylor, MD, and Ed Ciriacy, MD (posthumously).

Robert Taylor, MD, is professor emeritus of family medicine at Oregon Health & Science University.  A board-certified family physician, Dr Taylor is a 1961 graduate of the Temple University School of Medicine.  He trained in the United States Public Health Service Hospital at Norfolk, Virginia, and was in private family practice in New Paltz, New York for 14 years.  In 1978, he joined the faculty of the Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.  In 1984, Dr Taylor moved to Oregon, where he served as chairman of the Department of Family Medicine at Oregon Health & Science University until 1998.  He is the author and editor of 24 medical reference books including Family Medicine: Principles and Practice and The Manual of Family Medicine.

Ed Ciriacy, MD, was STFM president from 1975–1977 and former STFM Foundation trustee. He served in the Army Air Force during World War II and was a graduate of Pennsylvania State College and Temple University School of Medicine. After 1 year of internship and 1 year of surgery residency at Frankford and Temple Hospitals in Philadelphia, he began private practice as a family physician in Ely, Minn in 1954 where he tirelessly served the community as a family physician for more than 20 years. He was professor and head of the Department of FamilyMedicine and Community Health at the University of Minnesota from 1971–1995 and remained a professor in the department until he retired from the University in 1998. Under his leadership the department grew to include one of the largest family medicine residency programs in the country, educating a significant number of primary care physicians serving Minnesota and the nation. Under his leadership, in 1985 the department established UCare Minnesota, a very successful HMO. Dr Ciriacy was a powerful advocate for the specialty of family medicine. He was active in state and national medical associations, medical education organizations, and committees, and  served as president of the Minnesota Academy of Family Physicians. Dr Ciriacy died June 21, 2006.

Curtis G. Hames Research Award in Family Medicine

The Hames Consortium awarded its 2007 Curtis G. Hames Research Award to Peter Franks, MD.

This award is presented annually to acknowledge and honor those individuals whose careers exemplify dedication to research in family medicine. The recipient is selected by a Consortium which represents STFM, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the North American Primary Care Research Group, and a representative from the Hames Endowment.

The late Dr Hames, for whom the award is named, was internationally recognized as a pioneer in family medicine research. The award is supported by the Hames Endowment of the Department of Family Medicine, Medical College of Georgia.

Dr Franks went to medical school in London, England.  He came to the United States with his American wife, Beth, in 1976 and completed a family medicine residency at the University of Rochester, NY. Subsequently, after a fellowship, he joined the faculty in Rochester, where he remained for more than 20 years. He functioned in many guises there, including residency director, research director, medical director, and associate department chair. In 2000, he moved to Sacramento, California, to join the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of California, Davis, and has remained there happily since then.  His main roles now are to mentor primary care researchers, conduct his own research, and support general academic department functions. Dr Franks’ research interests have been catholic, with emphases in three overlapping areas: disparities in health and health care; physician-patient communication; and health status measurement.