May marked the celebration of medicine as a profession for all on National Physicians’ Day on May 1 and specifically for family physicians on World Family Doctor Day on May 19. These days mark a time to reflect on how much of a difference we can make in our patients’ lives and to our health-care systems. At a time when we are facing unprecedented administrative burden and burnout, these days offer a chance to consider the positive impact we make as family physicians and how important it is that we keep fighting for real reforms to make this sustainable.
Dr. Kurt Stange, founding editor of the Annals of Family Medicine, highlighted this week the need for substantive changes that recognize the centrality of comprehensive primary care led by expert family physicians. He calls for us to "stop enabling a dysfunctional system” and make real change the priority. I couldn’t agree more.
I also had the opportunity to visit our American colleagues at the AAFP’s National Leadership Conference in Kansas City this month. This was a great opportunity to see and recognize the importance of leadership and the development of future leaders for our profession.
We are fortunate to have many faculty members across all our sites involved in leadership and supporting those earlier in their careers. Dr. Brent Wolfrom passed the torch for the role of program director to Dr. Kim Curtin this month. I’d like to thank him for his outstanding leadership of our program through the pandemic and throughout his term. For those who aren’t aware, Dr. Wolfrom did a lot of work on leadership development and curriculum to support our residents’ growth into the leaders of tomorrow.
We are also recognizing Dr. David Barber as he takes on the role of SGFP chair at a critical point in time, with the development of the priorities for a new physician services agreement top of mind.
We are the leaders needed to make change happen, so thank you all for continuing to step forward to make a difference for our department, your learners, and the communities we serve.
Dr. Michael Green
Department Head
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