In her inaugural address as President of ACPM, Dr. M. “Tonette” Krousel-Wood laid out a vision for the College focused on three areas: presence and purpose, pipeline, and practice. Throughout the year, CEO, Donna Grande, ensured ACPM's goals and initiatives echoed this vision. How has the College expanded the presence of preventive medicine and the visibility of the incredible work preventive medicine physicians do? How has ACPM enhanced the day-to-day practice of prevention and expanded the scientific evidence base? How has the organization held true to its core purpose to advance the health and wellbeing of all people and communities? How does the College support the future growth of the profession?
ACPM has been at the forefront of several important efforts to advance population health, improve knowledge and understanding of disease, and advance the profession of preventive medicine. Working closely with colleagues across medical specialties and public health agencies and organizations, ACPM continues to expand and enhance our presence and purpose in critical conversations about workforce development, public health infrastructure, disease prevention and cost controls through value-based reimbursement and health systems transformation.
In partnership with the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), ACPM is working to support disease prevention efforts and enhance the training and knowledge of physicians across the nation. The Military Environmental Exposures Certification Program (MEE) has engaged more than 1,000 physicians in training designed to improve the care of veteran patients.
The Vaccine Confident Campaign continues to evolve – expanding to more than 50 campaign ambassadors who share sound, science-based recommendations for vaccination – empowering physicians, educating the public, and combating mis- and dis-information about vaccines. The scope of the campaign has expanded beyond promotion of vaccination for COVID-19 to include efforts to increase vaccination rates for seasonal flu and routine childhood vaccinations. Vaccines remain one of the most effective tools in the public health toolbox, and ACPM ambassadors continue to educate the public on the science of vaccination, the safety profile of vaccines, and the best times and places to get vaccinated. Campaign ambassadors have been included in more than 3,400 media articles and placements, reaching more than 560 million people.
To date, the campaign has received several awards, including Modern Healthcare’s Marketing Impact Awards, the National Health Information Awards, multiple gold recognitions from the American Business Awards, and recognition from PRNews PR Platinum Awards.
Also, in partnership with CDC, ACPM served as an HIV Partnering and Communicating Together (PACT) partner in the Let’s Stop HIV Together campaign. Outreach highlighted the importance of combating HIV-related stigma, and testing for HIV as part of routine medical care to better prevent and treat the condition by providing physician resources, media outreach, and engaging with our social media communities.
Together with the American Medical Association, ACPM supported 13 physician-led practices to help build capacity within minoritized and marginalized populations to address inequities in mitigation, treatment, and recovery efforts related to COVID-19. ACPM invited the physician-led practices to the COVID-19 Equity: A White House Summit on What Works Showcase in November. The showcase highlighted evidence-based programs and initiatives that impacted equitable COVID-19 prevention and treatment.
ACPM also facilitated a CDC-Training Entity Partner Meeting, including the CDC and 13 Training Entity Partners to discuss strategies to strengthen and strategize around the delivery of the National Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) by DPP-trained lifestyle coaches, including standardizing practice and integrating equity-informed content. Developing coaching skills and building resources for physician referrals will address the growing cases of diabetes and pre-diabetes and is an important adjuvant to patient care and disease mitigation.
ACPM continued work with the Council of Medical Specialty Societies and the ACGME Equity Matters pilot project. ACPM’s strategic plan includes diversity, equity and inclusion as a core tenet of membership offering and ongoing operations.
To celebrate and honor those who advance this important work, the College conducted the second annual Dr. Daniel S. Blumenthal Lecture and Award event at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. This year’s awardee Daniel E. Dawes, JD, Executive Director of the Satcher Health Leadership Institute of Morehouse University and author of the Political Determinants of Health, provided an eye-opening lecture on the role politics plays in shaping health outcomes and the role public health physicians can play in the policy process. An impressive reactionary panel rounded out the hybrid event live streamed to more than 100 virtual attendees and can be viewed here.
The 2022 ACPM annual conference in Denver was a tremendous success. More than 450 physicians, medical students and passionate preventionists from across the country met for the first in-person conference since 2019. Preventive Medicine 2022 (PM 2022) featured scientific symposiums, poster presentations, panel discussions, and workshops to spotlight emerging science, best practices, and clinical techniques relevant to preventive medicine practitioners. The 2022 KBS Lecturer, Dr. Janine Austin Clayton, focused on the longstanding impact of exclusion from research, science and clinical trials of women and minoritized populations in creating the health disparities we see in communities and illuminated a pathway to more inclusive and accurate science.
ACPM joined partner organizations and supported more than 15 legislative initiatives to advance public health and wellness – including efforts to expand CDC funding, prevent youth tobacco use, prevent the health consequences of climate change, and more. ACPM also joined efforts to protect patient access to essential preventive services via first dollar reimbursement from Medicare, and continued access to essential reproductive health services, joining amicus briefs led by the American Public Health Association.
ACPM also has representation on the AMA House of Delegates and supports the Section Council on Preventive Medicine to ensure important policies are vetted with the lens of preventive medicine. This year, ACPM members drafted a memorial resolution in honor of our beloved Dr. F. Douglas Scutchfield and another to advocate for awareness on the updated United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) guidelines on colorectal cancer screening.
ACPM’s journal, the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, had an incredibly successful year. The impact factor of the journal climbed to 6.6, indicative of the incredibly high quality of scientific scholarship in public health and prevention submitted, published and cited.
ACPM team members presented posters and oral sessions at more than five national conferences, including the American Public Health Association annual conference. The team shared groundbreaking work in population health advancement, supporting minority physician-led practices, increasing access and update of essential vaccines, improving the standards of care in diabetes prevention, and showcased the impact of the Vaccine Confident Campaign on addressing marginalized populations.
ACPM has continued to promote the importance of preventive medicine throughout the year in various venues and channels. Specifically, we have seen our influence grow in the social media space, with year-over-year follower counts increasing by 11%. More than 12,000 people follow ACPM on social media. The ACPM website was visited more than ever, with 7% more visitors over the last calendar year.
Heading into 2023, ACPM is gearing up to launch the next generation of the Power of Prevention. This effort will feature the faces, stories, and experiences of this diverse and impactful medical specialty, and the good we can do to eliminate disparities in care, improve outcomes and efficiency for health systems, and prepare for future pandemics.
In 2022, nearly 2,000 preventive medicine and public health physicians count the College as their professional home. ACPM members come from many different professional backgrounds, and each bring unique skills and needs to ACPM.
The ACPM Membership Committee further expanded resident engagement, networking, and career development. Several onboarding sessions for incoming residents and special events at the annual conference, among other settings, were held to connect residents and early career physicians with experienced members across a variety of settings. PM 2022 also featured highly attended networking and mentoring programs and workshops as well as a “fun factor” engaging in a social event to enjoy an American favorite pastime—a baseball game. Coupling scientific sessions with networking and fun will continue in New Orleans in 2023.
ACPM received its largest ever class of fellowship applicants, more than double 2021, who will be inaugurated at the 2023 annual conference in March. Leading ACPM members continued to be featured in AJPM Member Spotlights and recognized and honored as shining stars in prevention during the annual awards ceremony at PM22. The 2023 KBS Awardee will be an ACPM luminary, Dr. Jonathan Fielding.
ACPM Board of Regents continued efforts to conduct 1:1 outreach and virtual meetings with each residency program to share their careers with current residents and learn more about ways ACPM can meet their needs. Several member meet ups have occurred throughout the year offering opportunities for members to come together with ACPM staff while on business in their city or to visit with residents while onsite. These events have continued to strengthen the relationship and showcase the resources offered by ACPM to serve as a professional home for future leaders in preventive medicine.
ACPM advocacy activities focused on promoting the value preventive medicine brings to our health system and supporting the essential pipeline for training preventive medicine physicians. The College conducted a briefing for Congressional Staff in Q1 2022, sharing stories about the work preventive medicine physicians undertake in community prevention of cardiometabolic disease, addressing social determinants, and advancing health equity and innovative work to improve the health of veteran populations. Following this, ACPM volunteers conducted more than 50 advocacy meetings and touch points with members of Congress on both sides of the aisle to support increased funding for preventive medicine residencies.
ACPM launched the 10 Essential Public Health Services for Physicians, a new education offering outlining key skills all physicians must master as they integrate public health into their practice. This course provides the groundwork for mobilizing communities, forging partnerships, championing policy, and improving population health.
ACPM secured more than $5 million in FY22 (federal and non-federal funding) to build physician capacity and the evidence base for best practice models to address the most pressing issues facing public health today, including chronic diseases (cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hypertension), cancer (colorectal cancer), infectious diseases (HIV and COVID-19) and the underlying issues of health inequity and social determinants of health.
These courses highlighted key areas for practice expansion, improvement, and critical spaces for health care transformation. Additionally, they include opportunities where physicians can work upstream to radically improve the health of their communities.
Leveraging Health Information Technology to Drive Innovation, Improve Population Health, and Advance Health Equity
Addressing Implicit Bias Among Physicians at the Clinical and System Levels
Aligning Population Health Outcomes with Emerging Payment Models and Delivery System Reform Models
Using Clinical Preventive Medicine to Improve Population Health Outcomes in Rural Areas
Centering Equity in Crisis Preparedness and Response in Health Systems: Elevating Emerging Practices in the Care of Minoritized Populations
Learning and Using the Policymaking Process to Serve Minoritized Communities
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to exacerbate and bring to light the deep disparities and fissures in our health care system. Preventive medicine physicians have the skills and knowledge to help heal these divides and rectify the structural barriers that created them.
ACPM Prevention Alliance member Exact Sciences has collaborated with the College on a program to advance best practices for screening and prevention of colorectal cancer – continuing to expand opportunities for collaboration with industry partners to support science and evidence-based preventive medicine practice.
ACPM continued to develop programs and collaborations to build the lifestyle coaching capacity to prevent diabetes and address health equity. The program's goal is to increase the number and capacity of coaches working with priority populations underenrolling in the National Diabetes Prevention Program.
With 2023 at the forefront, ACPM will continue to enhance and expand its presence and purpose, reinforcing the pipeline and enhancing evidence-based practice. In the new year, ACPM will launch its This is Preventive Medicine Campaign – bringing the first-person perspective of preventive medicine physicians to light as they share in their own words how they are transforming health care.
America remains at a crossroads when it comes to health. The recent experience of the COVID-19 pandemic has heightened the awareness of the numerous inefficient, underfunded and broken systems across the healthcare ecosystem. Healthcare systems need change, and ACPM is uniquely positioned to accelerate that change around one central premise: transforming our health system through prevention. Thank you for joining ACPM in that mission.
