Governor’s Corner
Chris Knight, MD FACP
Summer is here! A warm welcome as the sun shines brightly on our corner of the country. Here’s hoping that all of you have a chance to enjoy the outdoors in this beautiful time of year, and I’m keeping fingers crossed for a mild smoke season. Special shout out to those who are doing wilderness/outdoor medicine this summer—thanks for your service and for supporting the rest of us as we head for the mountains, lakes, rivers, and trails.
ACP just issued its Annual Report, and I wanted to briefly highlight some of the College’s activities and priorities over the last year:
– A focus on reducing injuries and deaths from firearms, including a toolkit for advocacy on the issue;
– Fighting medical misinformation and disinformation;
– Advocating for equitable care for obesity;
– More resources to enhance physician well-being and professional fulfillment
– Continued free access to DynaMedex as a benefit of membership;
– The POCUS pathway bundle for those wanting a comprehensive program to learn point of care ultrasound;
– Significant wins in advocacy, including reduced documentation burden for inpatient services (to align with outpatient), continued access
to telehealth, improvements to prior authorization for Medicare advantage plans, and changing the blood donation exclusion for men
who have sex with men;
– A new financial well-being program, especially directed at those in residency, fellowship, and early in their practice.
For all of these initiatives and innovations, my thanks go to you–the members of ACP. It’s your engagement with the organization that allows the College to serve our community of internal medicine specialists and subspecialists, and that allows us in turn to serve our patients. Without its members, ACP would be a hollow shell, lacking coherence and meaning. Thank you for your ongoing support.
A few key announcements for the Chapter:
- Our annual Board Review Course took place on July 19–21 and you can still purchase registration to receive all the recorded presentations to use as study aides. This course is designed for new residency grads and those taking the ABIM recertification exam, but all are welcome. It’s less time consuming and much less expensive than ACP’s national course.
- We need help with Chapter awards! There are so many doing good work, and we want to recognize them. Please submit nominations here through September to honor our colleagues.
- I’m delighted that we will be back at Bell Harbor Conference Center this year for our Annual Chapter Meeting in November. However, negotiations with Bell Harbor were challenging—they have raised their rates significantly, and we had to move our Saturday lunch to a different room to accommodate their schedule. We plan to raise our registration fees slightly, but it won’t be enough to cover the increase in costs unless we have excellent attendance. Bottom line: if you are able, please join us in person at Bell Harbor. If you can’t make it, please register for the virtual course! Every year we are working to improve our ability to connect with those attending virtually, and we hope to keep expanding that option for those who can’t attend the in-person meeting.
Again, thanks for your membership, and for all that you do for your patients and colleagues. Enjoy the summer and I hope to see you in November!
Sincerely,
Chris Knight, Governor || Washington Chapter – American College of Physicians
clknightfacp@fastmail.com
Save the date for this year’s Annual Chapter Meeting! Precourses will be offered virtually on Thursday, November 2nd. The main meeting will be offered on Friday November 3rd & Saturday, November 4th both in-person at Bell Harbor Conference Center and live virtually. There will be two webcasts this year for in-person streaming from Spokane, WA and Yakima, WA.
We look forward to seeing you one way or another to celebrate collegiality and learn from our tremendous faculty. Please look out for registration opening soon!
Annual Meeting Call for Abstracts!
Annual Meeting Story Slam Submissions
Do you have a story involving your experiences as a physician that you would like to share with the Washington ACP audience?
This is a call to you, our members and trainees, to submit a short story or essay. We are looking for stories that capture the human side of our work, are personally meaningful and highlight your passion for medicine or medical training. ACP judges will select the top 3 submissions for oral presentation during the annual meeting.
Stories should be limited to 400 words.
Submit below by October 1st, 2023.
Chapter Awards Nominations Are Open!
It’s that time of year again – to recognize the outstanding efforts of Internists in our state! We need your nominations for the following awards:
- Washington ACP Internist of the Year
- Washington ACP Community Service Award
- Washington ACP Chapter Service Award
- Washington ACP Golden Apple Award
- Washington ACP Full-time Faculty Clinician-Educator of the Year
- Washington ACP Hospitalist of the Year
Please take a few minutes to tell us who is deserving of a recognition award from their colleagues.
The deadline for submitting your nomination is September 24th, 2023. Awards will be presented at the Washington Chapter ACP Annual Meeting, on November 3, 2023 at Bell Harbor International Conference Center.
Washington Chapter Council of Medical Students Is Here!
By Antonio Guadamuz, MS4, University of Washington
Greetings from the Council of Student Members! We are a newly formed group composed of medical students from Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences, Washington State University and the University of Washington. Our main goals are to introduce students to the ACP, connect the Internal Medicine interest groups at our respective institutions, and plan events showcasing the range of internal medicine careers throughout our state through mentorship and social events. We also hope to build connections between our three campuses where students interested in Internal Medicine can network with fellow colleagues who they might otherwise never meet. For upcoming events we hope to engage attending and resident members in mentorship opportunities so please stay tuned!
What’s Been Happening In Our Chapter
The International Medical Graduate Council (IMG) organized a wellness event for physicians at the Gurudwara Singh Sabha/Sikh Temple in Renton on July 16, from 12:30-2 pm. During the event, attendees engaged in open and valuable conversations, sharing personal stories about their challenges and how they overcame them. The physicians generously discussed the multitude of wellness strategies they incorporated into their lives, ranging from therapy to bhangra dance, to maintain their passion for practicing medicine. The event also welcomed IMG residency applicants, who sought advice from experienced physicians on navigating the healthcare system.
Additionally, a hospitalist wellness event was held for UW Valley hospitalists in Renton on Saturday, July 22, from 6:30-7:30 pm. The casual get-together provided an opportunity for the participants to enjoy good food, great company, and a much-needed wellness boost.
We express our gratitude to Catherine Wheeler, the WA state wellness champion, for her guidance in planning these events. The wellness grant allocated to WA under her leadership generously supported the successful execution of these gatherings.
Wellness Corner: Narrative Medicine
By Carrie Horwitch, MD MACP, ACP Wellness Champion & Gary Forbes, MD FACP
Narrative medicine is defined as the ability to recognize, absorb, interpret and act on the content of patients’ stories. Narrative medicine programs are being developed and used in many training programs, with early evidence suggesting enhanced empathy and clinician wellness as a result. Our ACP chapter has used one aspect of storytelling with the story slam at our annual meeting, Facilitated narrative medicine programs have been very popular in many ACP chapters and other organizations.
We use poetry, prose and other tools to develop prompts for reflection, writing and sharing our own stories in a collaborative, compassionate and confidential space.You do not need to be a writer or have any prior experience
We are doing monthly zoom narrative medicine sessions (usually the 2nd Thursday of the month except August). This is a great way to connect with other physicians and share our stories.
We invite you to join us for a monthly 60 minute online session: our next workshop is on August 3 at 7 pm. Click here to register.
Joey Parker’s Teaching Corner
As we approach the beginning of a new academic year, there is invariably more emphasis on feedback and helping new learners achieve their best results. Too often during feedback with early learners is the lack of specific feedback aimed toward mastering a skill or concept. For example, we might say to an early learner, “Read more about acute exacerbations of COPD” or “listen to this podcast on new medications for HFrEF.” While this is probably helpful, we need to be precise in what we ask learners. Instead of the above, try being more distinct: “I want you to read about indications for empiric Pseudomonas treatment in COPD exacerbations,” or “I want you to read about ARNI indications and contraindications and when to start them in HFrEF.” This type of specified feedback makes it clearer to the learner what your expectations are, and more likely they’ll accomplish the goals you are helping set. Here’s to a great start of the new academic year!
Member News: Josh Liao and Liz Truong Awarded Puget Sound Business Journal 40 Under 40!
Congratulations to two of our own – Washington ACP member Joshua Liao and Washington Chapter Executive Director, Liz Truong, for being selected into the Puget Sound Business Journal Top 40 Under 40. This award showcases individuals in the Puget Sound region with impressive professional success and show great potential based on their visions for the future and strategies to get there. Candidates are also selected based on their action in their communities through industry involvement, civic engagement and company initiatives outside their job responsibilities.
We are thrilled to celebrate these two hardworking individuals who do so much for our chapter and for National ACP. We welcome you both into the 40 Under 40 Class of 2023!