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In this Issue:
- Governor's Report
- Finance Committee
- Health and Public Policy Committee
- Membership Committee
- Kansas ACP Scientific Meeting Planning Committee
- ACP Medical Students, Residents and Fellows-in-Training Committee
- Awards Committee
- Social Media Committee
- Mark Your Calendar:
Ky B. Stoltzfus, MD, FACP, ACP Governor
Governor's Report
Dear ACP Colleagues:
This is my final newsletter as Kansas Governor. It's been my absolute privilege to serve the chapter over the past 4 years. I've appreciated the opportunity to get to know more of you, make connections across the chapter, and increase the activities and involvement of the chapter.
Over the past several years we've achieved a number of important goals within the chapter. While I've led these initiatives, it was certainly a group effort and couldn't have happened without the participation of our leaders and committee chairs. Total membership has increased across all categories. I'm delighted with the increased engagement of medical students and renewal of membership by practicing physicians. The number of fellows (FACP) has increased by about 9% over the past 4 years and we're seeing greater parity in the number of women with FACP as well. We've expanded programming within the chapter with the addition of a Women in Medicine committee and Social Media committee. And of course, the existing committees of Health & Public Policy, Students/Residents/Fellows, and Early Career Physicians continue to do an excellent job of providing programming and engagement.
I want to specifically thank all of the committee chairs, both current and past, for their great work. There are too many of them to list here, but you will see many of their names on this newsletter, and in past newsletters. These folks have been doing great work, often behind the scenes, and are the backbone of the chapter. We have achieved the Gold Excellence level as a chapter because of all of the work of the chapter committees and leaders. For context, we began at Bronze when I was Governor-Elect and have steadily worked our way up to Silver and now Gold. That's something to be proud of as a chapter!
We've had great administrative support from Kansas Medical Society and this has been an important partnership for us. I'm grateful for the ongoing collaboration.
It's my honor to transition leadership to Dr. Rebecca Opole as the next Kansas ACP Governor. She will do a great job and I have no doubt the chapter will continue to grow and thrive.
Lastly, I hope each of you will continue to find ACP as your professional home. We have a variety of ways for you to be involved and interact within the chapter. ACP wants to continue to be of value to all members for education, advocacy, well-being and improving patient care.
With gratitude,
Ky Stoltzfus, MD, FACP, FAAHPM
Finance Committee
As a result of the outside audit of the KS ACP finances that was completed in the summer of 2023, we have established new practices to provide oversight of payments from the chapter's account. The chapter remains financially healthy. We have one year of operating reserves in long-term investments and our daily accounts continue to have more than sufficient funds to cover expenses.
Brendan Kelly, MD
Finance Committee Chair
Health and Public Policy Committee
Our chapter participated in Kansas Medical Society's Advocacy Day at the Kansas State Capitol this January. We met with multiple Kansas legislators to advocate for Medicaid Expansion, increase in the Medicaid physician fee scheduled, and prior authorization reform. Donna Sweet, MD, MACP, Ky Stoltzfus, MD, FACP, Tiffany Schwasinger-Schmidt, MD, PhD, FACP, Alana Longwell, DO, FACP, Shreena Kamlesh Gandhi, MD and I represented our chapter. Our federal advocacy day (ACP Leadership Day) will take place this May in Washington, D.C.
In response to physician dissatisfaction with the current ABIM maintenance of certification (MOC) process, our Kansas Chapter submitted a Board of Governors (BOG) resolution that seeks to update ACP's policy on MOC. The resolution was presented at the BOG meeting in April and referred for study by appropriate ACP committees. It will return to the BOG meeting in one year for another vote.
ACP continues to advocate for policies that benefit internal medicine and our patients. To stay up to date, we encourage all members to enroll in the Advocates for Internal Medicine Network (AIMn). By joining, you will receive legislative updates on key policy issues and easy ways to engage in outreach to your federal lawmakers. You can sign up for AIMn here For more information on current priorities, visit ACPs advocacy website
Sincerely,
Benjamin Quick, MD, FACP
Health & Public Policy Chair
Membership Committee
The Kansas ACP membership committee recently completed a membership outreach program to unpaid members resulting in a 1% increase in paid membership. This outreach initiative earned the chapter a financial incentive that will be used to support chapter activities. In addition to this campaign, membership outreach efforts have resulted in a 2% increase in chapter membership since October of 2023. Additional outreach efforts are ongoing to engage with students, resident physicians, and practicing physicians across the state to encourage engagement with the Kansas ACP chapter and highlight the benefits on membership in ACP.
Tiffany Schwasinger-Schmidt, MD, PhD, FACP
Membership Committee Chair
Kansas ACP Scientific Meeting Planning Committee
The planning/program committee is excited to bring you this year's meeting, which is a joint effort with the Missouri chapter. The 2024 Scientific Meeting and Hospitalist Day are scheduled Oct 9-11 at the historic Elms hotel in beautiful Excelsior Springs, Missouri. We have some brilliant speakers scheduled to speak on interesting topics such as opioid use disorder, transgender care, and climate change. There is an interactive POCUS workshop as well, with POCUS experts from both Kansas and Missouri in attendance as teachers. We continue our focus on Wellness this year as well, with some excellent sessions on the topic.
We look forward to seeing you this October in Excelsior Springs!
Sidra Raza, MD, FACP
Chair
Program Committee
ACP Medical Students, Residents and Fellows-in-Training Committee
In 2024, the student, resident, and fellows-in-training committee has been working on increasing opportunities for learners to grow in their careers through ACP. We welcomed new members to our committee this summer for the 2023-2024 academic year and they have been hard at work on engaging students and residents in ACP. This was the fifth consecutive year of the Kansas ACP Resident Physician and Medical Student Mentorship Program. It is a great opportunity for residents to become mentors to students and increase student interest in Internal Medicine. The committee reintroduced the "30 Minutes with an ACP Member" program to help provide medical students and residents insight into fellowship training and careers in internal medicine specialties. This year, Dr. Rebecca Opole guided us through the advantages of being an outpatient internal medicine physician. These sessions will continue this spring with other specialties. This winter, the committee hosted an outstanding workshop series on research abstracts, posters and presentations lead by Dr. Samuel Ofei-Dodoo. We are continuing to work on further events to encourage ACP membership as students transition to residents and as residents and fellows transition to early career physicians.
Nikki Miller, MD
KsACP Resident Representative
Awards Committee
The awards committee has chosen to recognize Kansas ACP members for the following awards this year:
- Laureate
- Hospitalist of the Year
- Outstanding Internal Medicine Physician
- Volunteerism and Community Service
- Teacher of the Year
- Chapter Advocacy
- Early Career Physician
Awardees will be recognized at the Kansas Chapter Awards Luncheon on October 11,2024.
Donna Sweet, MD, MACP
Award Committee Chair
Social Media Committee
Please make sure you like us on Facebook (ACP-Kansas Chapter) , follow us on Instagram (KansasACP) , and follow us on X (@ACPKansas) . We greatly appreciate you interacting with our posts as this helps ACP content be seen by more people.
Kenna Fischman MD
Social Media Chair
Mark Your Calendar:
October 9-11, 2024 – 2024 Missouri and Kansas Chapters Annual Scientific Meeting –The Elms Resort Excelsior Springs, MO
April 3-5, 2025 – Internal Medicine 2025 – New Orleans, LA
Kansas Governor's Newsletter May 2024