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In this Issue:
- Greetings to All ACP members!
- Chapter Meeting
- Fall BOG 2021
- Call to Action
- Leadership Day 2022
- Your Well Being
- Opportunities to get Involved
Emily C. Church, MD, FACP, ACP Governor
Greetings to All ACP members!
As I enter the second year of my term of governor (and the third year of the pandemic) I'm proud of our accomplishments during these challenging times and excited about upcoming events and opportunities.
I'm pleased to announce our chapter received the Gold Chapter Excellence Award. This is achieved through involvement and hard work of our members. The criteria for the excellence awards make up the framework of our strategic plan and mission of our chapter. Facets include advocacy, member engagement, communication, education, financial responsibility, infrastructure, and professional home. Thank you to all who helped contribute.
Congratulations to our new Members, Fellows, and those receiving Mastership in the last 6 months:
Robert W. Bundtzen, MD, MACP, Mastership, Anchorage
Nicholas R. Berlon, MD, Member, Soldotna
Chloe C. French, Medical Student Member, Eagle River
Isaac S. Lopez, MD, Member, Soldotna
Emily Rom, Medical Student Member, Anchorage
Jonathan A. Motts, MD, Member, Sitka
Bartholomew Grabman, Medical Student Member, Anchorage
Anne Bakker Standerwick, MD Fellow Juneau
Special congratulations to our new Mastership recipient, Dr. Robert Bundtzen. This is the highest honor that the College can give a member. They are selected because of “integrity, positions of honor, impact in practice or in medical research, or other attainments in science or in the art of medicine.” Certainly Dr. Bundtzen has demonstrated this through his tireless and enthusiastic dedication to the college as well as his commitment to our medical community.
I'd also like to recognize Molly Southworth, MD, MACP for being elected to the Board of Regents for a second two-year term. Thank you for all your hard work locally and nationally.
Many of you have heard of the passing of our esteemed colleague Dr. Tom Wood, MACP. Tom was a pioneer for health care in Alaska, establishing dialysis and organ donation programs as well as modern paramedic systems. He devoted many years to volunteering at Anchorage Neighborhood Health Clinic and supporting Anchorage Project Access. If you have any personal stories you would like to be included in a special memoriam at our chapter meeting in April please email Julie Lake Tom will be greatly missed. Here is the link to Tom's obituary
Our chapter had the opportunity to cohost a virtual symposium on IMG engagement with Dr. George Abraham, ACP president. I'm hoping to collaborate with the other chapters to host more educational virtual events in the future.
Congratulations to our newly appointed Well-Being Champion Dr. Megan Roosen-Runge. Through this program we hope to create deeper awareness of issues related to burn out, and foster programs that improve professional satisfaction.
NW Regional Doctors Dilemma is currently on hold given the demands of time management with the pandemic, but stay tuned for updates.
Chapter Meeting
The Alaska ACP Chapter meeting will be held April 7-9, 2022 at the Sheraton in downtown Anchorage. As of now we are still planning an in-person meeting. Meeting highlights include update on Covid from Dr. Anne Zink, geriatric medicine sessions from Dr. Marianne Parshley, and opportunity to get opioid training CME requirement.
ACP Annual Scientific Meeting is scheduled to be held in Chicago, April 28-30. Hope to see you there in person!
Fall BOG 2021
Board of Governors last fall pivoted to a virtual meeting. The primary focus was on strategic planning and leadership development, with informative sessions on reinventing health care during a pandemic. Looking forward to attending in person at the upcoming annual meeting in Chicago.
Call to Action
Are you concerned about a practice or clinical issue or have an idea you'd like to suggest? If so, you might consider submitting a resolution to your Governor or chapter council.
Initiating a resolution provides ACP members an opportunity to focus attention at the ACP national level on a particular issue or topic that concerns them. Participating in the Board of Governors resolutions process provides the ACP grassroots member a voice and allows you to shape College policy that impacts the practice of internal medicine. When drafting a resolution, don't forget to consider how well it fits within ACP's Mission and Goals. In addition, be sure to use the College’s Priority Themes to guide you when proposing a resolution topic.
Not sure how to begin drafting a resolution? Researching the College's position on an issue can give you a start. Visit the ACP Online homepage and click the "Advocacy" link in the right-hand, top margin to access ACP policy positions, read about recent ACP advocacy activities, or search ACP's library of policies and recommendations. Visit your chapter website, too, and click the link under "Advocacy" to access Electronic Resolutions System (ERS) where you can search past or proposed resolutions. A copy of the resolutions process is available on the ERS, which furnishes more details on formatting resolutions, as well the process for submission, review, and approval.
Members must submit resolutions to their Governor and/or chapter council. A resolution becomes a resolution of the chapter once the chapter council approves it. If effecting change interests you, the deadline for submitting new resolutions to be heard at the Fall 2022 Board of Governors Meeting is March 30, 2022.
Share your good idea with us. Draft a resolution.
Leadership Day 2022
Do you want to be a part of our Alaska Chapter Delegation to Washington DC for Leadership Day May 17-19? Please fill out application emailed Dec 9th or request another application from Julie Lake . This is really an amazing experience to learn about advocacy and public policy in health care. Learn more about ACP Leadership Day
Your Well Being
As part of ACP's Well-Being and Professional Fulfillment initiative, ACP has launched a collection of resources aimed at helping members improve their emotional well-being. As a recognition of the unprecedented stresses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic to internists and internists-in-training, ACP created the I.M. Emotional Support Hub to offer curated resources and information to protect physicians' emotional health and sustain ACP members' ability to care for those in need.
Resources include easily-accessible peer-support through the Physician Support Line and free and affordable, confidential counseling through The Emotional PPE Project and The Therapy Aid Coalition. Check out the hub for additional well-being tools and resources for individuals and organizations and to view all of ACP's Physician Well-being activities. For more information and questions, please contact acpwellbeing@acpprograms.org
Opportunities to get Involved
- Request to join a committee or serve on the council
- Chapter meeting planning committee
- Volunteerism committee
- Early Career Physician committee
- Wellness committee
- Diversity, equity and inclusion champion (DEI)
- Membership committee
- Health and public policy committee (HPPC)
- WWAMI student internal medicine interest group (IMIG)
- Strategic planning session
To get involved contact Emily Church or Julie Lake