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In this Issue:
- Letter from the Governor
- Early Career Physicians Committee
- Finance Committee
- Health and Public Policy Committee
- Membership Committee
- Planning Committee
- Student, Resident and Fellow Sub Committee
- Physician Wellness
- Women in Medicine Committee
Ky B. Stoltzfus, MD, FACP, ACP Governor
Letter from the Governor
Dear Colleagues,
I can't say it enough times, thank you for the good work you continue to do in your communities. We have ongoing ups and downs with the COVID-19 pandemic, but our work goes on to provide good patient care and a sound voice of medicine to the public. Keep it up!
I'd like to take this opportunity to highlight some of the work of ACP, both within our Kansas Chapter and nationally. At a state level we've been working to re-energize some of our committees and have started a couple new ones. Our Early Career Physicians committee has taken a fresh breath and is doing a great job of engaging the membership again. In the past year we've created a Social Media/Communications committee to help share more of what we're doing within the chapter. We've also created a Women in Medicine committee to focus on the important work of career advancement of our colleagues. All in all, I'm excited and pleased by all of the activity within the chapter –and that was during a pandemic year!
ACP continues its mission at a national level to provide high-quality education to internists and subspecialists, advocate for important patient care issues, and be a sound voice of evidence-driven medicine during a turbulent time. I am proud to be an internist, and I hope you are too. To that note, ACP continues the #IMproud trend to highlight our work.
There are many ways to engage with ACP:
- Join us for our Kansas Chapter meeting in October.
- Attend the ACP national meeting in April 2022.
- Attend Kansas Advocacy Day in January or ACP Leadership Day in May.
- Serve on a Kansas ACP committee, or even a national one.
- Be a mentor to an early career member, or be a mentee.
- Apply for FACP to show the excellence you're achieving in practice.
And there are many more opportunities that I don't have space to list here…
Lastly, I want to continue to encourage you to make ACP your professional home. The organization is behind you and wants to support you in your practice of medicine. If there are ever initiatives that you feel would benefit our state or chapter, please don't hesitate to contact me at kstoltzfus@kumc.edu. If you'd like to learn more about some of the opportunities listed above, our committee chairs or I would be happy to discuss with you.
My best wishes and I hope to see you in October.
Ky Stoltzfus, MD, FACP
Governor, Kansas ACP
Early Career Physicians Committee
Greetings from the Early Career Physicians Committee! This past academic year was one of re-engagement for our committee. We discussed what ACP can do for you at our regional KS ACP Conference last fall and gave a similar presentation to our graduating Internal Medicine residents this spring. Our hope is that this information will garner more interest in ACP and promote lifelong membership. We are looking forward to another academic year and will continue to work on increasing membership in KS ACP and getting more early career physicians involved in the chapter. If you are an early career physician (defined as within 16 years of completing medical school), please consider joining our ECP committee. Please respond to kcarter@kumc.edu indicating your interest in serving on this committee.
Kimberly Richardson, MD, FACP
Early Career Physicians Committee Chair
Finance Committee
The Finance Committee has been looking at opportunities to grow our reserves through investment options. We will be meeting again soon to examine options. The chapter remains on solid financial ground.
Angela M. Meyer, MD, FACP
Finance Committee Chair
Health and Public Policy Committee
ACP Leadership Day took place virtually in May. Donna Sweet, MD, MACP, Isaac Opole ,MD, PhD, FACP, Maharshi Bhakta, MD, FACP, Jerrica Werner, MD, Brianna Coogle, MD, and Benjamin Quick, MD, MPH represented our chapter as we met with 5 of our 6 congressional offices. Our main points of advocacy were expanding access to telehealth, increasing GME funding, and improving access to and reducing costs of prescription drugs.
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. Sign up here. For more information on current priorities, visit ACPs advocacy website.
Benjamin Quick, MD, MPH
Health & Public Policy Chair
Membership Committee
Membership committee continues to work on recruiting and retaining members. Membership committee members along with Early Career Physicians committee members gave short presentations to the residents of the Kansas City and Wichita campuses this spring. We will continue to work on identifying members for fellowship.
Scott Smiley, MD, FACP
Membership Committee Chair
Planning Committee
The planning committee has been working hard to create another excellent Kansas ACP Chapter Meeting for the upcoming year. The meeting is currently planned as an in-person event and will be held at the Marriott Overland Park on October 28-29, 2021. We will be keeping a close eye on the COVID-19 pandemic and will be ready to adjust to a hybrid or full virtual meeting if needed. This year will offer many exciting educational options for Internists. We will be having a panel discussion on Health Inequities and great lectures on implicit bias and the care of vulnerable populations. Additionally, we will have the opportunity to hear several outstanding lectures on classic internist diseases, from heart failure to emerging infectious diseases to interstitial lung disease. We will again feature a Doctor's Dilemma tournament for the resident physicians that will be based on the competition featured at the National ACP Meeting.
We are looking forward to the poster competition outlining research from students, residents, and early career physicians. We are currently in the process of recruiting poster judges and would appreciate any volunteers to evaluate resident presentations. Please contact Denise Lantz at dlantz@kmsonline.org if interested in serving as a poster judge. The schedule is finalized and we feel the meeting will enhance the practice of all Internists in all practice locations across Kansas. We look forward to seeing you at the Chapter Meeting in October.
Branden Comfort, MD, FACP
Planning Committee Chair
Student, Resident and Fellow Subcommittee
As a committee, we recently elected new resident and student representatives for the 2021-2022 year. In addition, new members to the committee this year include an HCA residency member representative and Fellow member representative. We are excited about the additions to our committee this year. We are continuing to enhance the Student/Resident Mentorship program for the 2021-2022 year that is set to start in August 2021. We are currently working on a social event to bring the students and residents together in person at the Chapter Fall meeting. As a committee, we continue to work to increase our membership and interest in ACP by presenting membership information at student and resident orientations.
Nikki Miller, MD
KsACP Resident Representative
Physician Wellness
To provide some avenues to enrich Physician Well Being, we created an opportunity to participate in a joint virtual movie night with Missouri and Arkansas ACP on March 25th. The group watched “Something the Lord Made,” which highlighted Vivien Thomas, a black man in the 1930s, originally hired as a janitor, who proves himself adept at assisting the “Blue Baby doctor,” Alfred Blalock, with his medical research. They find a way to skirt a racist system to continue their study of infant heart disease at Johns Hopkins University.
We are currently working with Well Being champions in North Carolina, New Mexico, and Missouri to launch a podcast series on Well Being…more to come on this.
We are also hoping to plan a virtual discussion in the next few months on a podcast by Brene Brown and Emily and Ameilia Nagoski on Burnout and How to Complete the Stress Cycle.
Mark your calendar to join me in a Well Being Zoom presentation and discussion as part of the ACP Women In Medicine meeting on September 1st at 4pm. Details about this event to come soon.
Please reach out to me at seschase@gmail.com if you are interested in Well Being training or would like to help coordinate activities. Thank you for all that you do. Stay well, friends.
Segen E. Smith Chase, MD, FACP
Wellness Champion
Women in Medicine Committee
The KsACP Women in Medicine Committee continues to meet quarterly. Our mission statement is: Our vision for Kansas is to champion the professional development of women in internal medicine and its subspecialties through advocacy, education, mentoring and networking. We continue to develop ideas and activities for these four areas, and our focus for the upcoming academic year will be on education. We will be offering an early morning session during the Kansas ACP meeting in October on electronic communication styles when messaging with patients. We are planning a one-day symposium in early 2022 to promote professional development and leadership. The committee's next meeting will be September 1st, and we will continue to meet virtually to allow for broad participation across the state. If you are interested in joining us, please contact Denise Lantz at dlantz@kmsonline.org
Jennifer McRae, MD
Women in Medicine Committee Chair
Mark Your Calendar:
October 28-29, 2021 – Kansas Chapter Scientific Meeting, Marriott Overland Park, Overland Park
January 25, 2022 – Advocacy Day, Topeka, KS
April 28-April 30, 2022 – Internal Medicine 2022, Chicago, IL
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