News

CEO Update: 12/07/2023

Greetings ACPM Members,
 

Hopefully you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and have completely digested any massive amount of food you may have consumed and perhaps were able to exercise to compensate for the calories. Over this past weekend, I read an article in the New York Times (NYT) about Dance; posing the question of why we don’t do more of it as we all know that movement is essential to well-being and good health. I had to ask myself this question as well given a little reflection on how much I loved to dance — at night when I was young and single, often with my husband (and of course at any and all weddings or celebrations where there is music) and then now, post pandemic, of when and how infrequent.

The Time for Self-Care is Now

As we enter this post-Thanksgiving and pre-holiday season, life does get quite a bit more hectic. In the academic world, it’s the surge to end the semester, prepare for the holidays, finish off the year and continue to plan for the next year. Added to all this are the pressures in the world filled with global crises – war, political upheaval, racism, violence, climate change (and unfortunately, the list could go on… and on). It’s easy to feel helpless with a loss of control and increased frustration in realizing the difficulty in improving changing the world situation.

ACPM Special Interests Groups

As set out in President Mirza Rahman’s inaugural address at the close of Preventive Medicine 2023 in New Orleans, ACPM has launched and is continuing to develop two Special Interest Groups (SIGs) — one for Pharmaceutical Medicine and the other for Global Health. The intention of the SIGs is to create a space for ACPM members to come together around a common purpose while advising, networking and mentoring colleagues to increase opportunities for engagement and advancement in respective fields. The creation of the Pharmaceutical Medicine SIG and the Global Health SIG follows from organic interest among ACPM members who have requested consolidation of resources and networking opportunities. In the future, ACPM looks forward to supporting SIGs around other topics of interest to ACPM membership.

Preventive Medicine 2024

The ACPM annual conference continues to serve as the best time for public health preventive medicine (PM) physicians to network with each other and with others interested in advancing the specialty in the common pursuit of the collective vision of optimizing population health in the U.S. and globally. I have found prior conferences to be a great time to not only meet other preventive medicine doctors, but also to reinvigorate my passion for this shared vision.

CEO Update 11/02/2023

As we enter the month of the Thanksgiving holiday, it is appropriate to offer ongoing gratitude to the many efforts of our staff and volunteers. In October, we hosted several events and engagement activities with members, organizational partners, and stakeholders and launched membership renewals. We had great engagement with the new cohort of residents beginning their journey and those continuing the next year of their training. We hosted an advocacy training (and encourage you to attend a future event to sharpen your advocacy edges) and individual visits to Capitol Hill to support action in preventive medicine. We also hosted the third annual Dr. Daniel S. Blumenthal Lecture and Award with an amazing lecture by Dr. Camara Jones and the reaction panel of past-president Dr. Neal Kohatsu, American Academy of Family Physicians’ President Dr. Tochi Irocku-Malize, and CEO of the Council for Medical Specialty Societies, Dr. Helen Burstin, moderated by ACPM Fellow Dr. Reed Tuckson. If you missed the live stream, you can view the recording here.

Letter From the President: Politics, Health Equity & Social Justice and Governance

The past week was a busy one for ACPM, with members of the Board, along with Chairs and Vice-Chairs of ACPM committees and ACPM staff attending several meetings in Washington, DC. We met with Congressional staffers, the leadership of the American Academy of Family Physicians, hosted the annual Blumenthal Lectureship on Health Equity & Social Justice and had the third quarterly ACPM Board meeting of 2023.

THE AMERICAN COLLEGE OF PREVENTIVE MEDICINE AWARDS DR. CAMARA PHYLLIS JONES ANNUAL DANIEL S. BLUMENTHAL AWARD AND LECTURE

Washington, DC (October 19, 2023) - The American College of Preventive Medicine (ACPM) awarded the annual Dr. Daniel S. Blumenthal Memorial Lecture to Camara Phyllis Jones, MD, MPH, PhD, a family physician, epidemiologist and past President of the American Public Health Association (APHA). Dr. Jones recently completed one year as a Leverhulme Visiting Professor in Global Health and Social Medicine at King’s College London. She is currently a Commissioner on the O’Neill-Lancet Commission on Racism, Structural Discrimination, and Global Health, as well as an Adjunct Professor at the Rollins School of Public Health and a Senior Fellow and Adjunct Associate Professor at the Morehouse School of Medicine. Dr. Jones presented a lecture on confronting racism denial and accepted the honor at an event held at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. in front of an audience of key leaders in health and healthcare.

The Future Direction of Our College Is Up to All of Us

What can and should the College do to better serve its members?  What actions must we take to better fulfill our mission to represent and support preventive medicine physicians in their role as public health and health system leaders? How do we ensure current and future members value what we have to offer and engage more fully in our vibrant and varied community? How do we engage our stakeholders more effectively while building the organizational capacity to deliver what we know our members and stakeholders want and need?

What's Your Next Step in Preventive Medicine?

As members of ACPM, we share a commitment to building healthier, more just communities through systems change. But transformation requires more than medical expertise — it demands courageous, unifying leadership and the ability to foster engaged communities ready to support change. This involves inspiring people to join the cause and bringing together diverse groups around a common vision.