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.
Politics is an integral part of what we do in preventive medicine! We work at the intersection of clinical medicine and public health, so connecting with our Congressional leaders is important to achieving the outcomes we desire. This is whether it is related to preventive medicine residency funding or sharing our perspective on how to help improve the health system in America. And so, for each of you, I hope you are registered to vote in the upcoming elections and that you do go out and vote.Health equity & social justice has been an area of focus for ACPM since Dr. Daniel Blumenthal set up the Preventive Medicine 2017 conference on “Achieving Health Equity through Prevention”. Thus, it was an honor to facilitate the third Annual Blumenthal Lectureship on Health Equity & Social Justice, where the awardee was the esteemed Dr. Camara Phyllis Jones, who delivered a stirring lecture on her work with the use of allegories to deal with the problem of structural racism. This is an ongoing challenge that we all must deal with in our society as we try to work towards a more just society.
Governance is making sure that we, the Board and thus the current custodians of ACPM, will be able to not only strive to achieve our objectives, but that we will be able to hand over a stronger organization to the next generation of ACPM leaders. Working on refining the strategic plan, seeking to collaborate with like-minded organizations, focusing on the financial health of the organization, growing our membership and doing all the other small and large things that are necessary for success of ACPM is vital for us to be a successful organization.
So, while this past week was a busy one for ACPM, we must continue to work together for the greater good of the country, while seeking to meet the needs of the membership, namely all of you who work on the frontlines of health care delivery as preventive medicine physicians on a daily basis.
Mirza I. Rahman
MD, MPH, FAAFP, FACPM