Governor’s Corner
Chris Knight, MD FACP
I’m writing this reflecting after the Super Bowl, still savoring the Seahawks victory. That–and some longer days–are enough to hold me over until the cherries start to bloom in Seattle.
Review of the 2025 Chapter Meeting
I don’t want to steal the thunder of our 2025 meeting chairs, so I will say simply that I thought the meeting was a blast. Like many of you, I missed the second fully in-person day, but I thought Friday in-person at the watch party in Downtown Seattle was a huge success. Although we didn’t make money on the meeting (it has always been discounted as a service to our membership) I felt like we were able to offer both an experience of community and a lot of high quality education at a cost that is sustainable for both attendees and the chapter.
Looking Ahead to Our 2026 Annual Chapter Meeting
I’m excited to share that planning for our 2026 Annual Chapter Meeting is well underway. Co-Chairs Sheida Aalami, MD and Ahmed Salahudeen, MD are building on last year’s hybrid model with a strong program. On November 7th, we’ll be back in person at Bell Harbor International Conference Center for our full slate of plenary sessions, workshops, the always-popular Doctors’ Dilemma (aka Jeopardy tm) competition, posters, abstract presentations, and the awards reception. November 8th will be a full virtual day with the option of an in-person Seattle Watch Party for those in town Registration will offer full two-day in-person attendance (with the option to go virtual on either day) as well as a virtual-only option. We’re genuinely excited about this format and hope it helps us reach more of our members across the state.
Advocacy: A Pivotal Moment
When asked my personal ACP story, I often say that I came for the education and stayed for the advocacy. This year that feels more true than ever
On the state side, the Chapter was well-represented at the WSMA Legislative Summit in Olympia on January 28th. The WSMA’s priorities this session are ones that speak directly to our patients and our practices: preserving access to care through Medicaid reimbursement rates, reforming prior authorization and insurance payment practices, protecting vaccine access and preventive services, and improving transparency in health professional titles. If you weren’t able to attend in person, I’d encourage you to review the WSMA issue briefs and consider reaching out to your own legislative delegation – your voice as a physician carries real weight in Olympia.
At the national level, ACP has been extraordinarily active in advocating for our patients and our profession. Vaccine access has emerged as perhaps the most urgent ACP priority for 2026, with the College fighting to preserve the integrity of the ACIP process and evidence-based immunization schedules. ACP has also been pressing hard on ACA premium tax credit restoration, opposing cuts to Medicaid, pushing back on changes to federal student loan programs that threaten the physician pipeline, and sounding the alarm on a White House health care proposal that lacks the detail needed to ensure patients are protected. On a positive note, the 2026 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule includes a favorable efficiency adjustment that should support increased payments for primary care services – a genuine win for many of us in internal medicine.
ACP recently sent a letter to Congress outlining its 2026 policy priorities, and has also been calling on members to urge Congress to support the Medicare Patient Access and Practice Stabilization Act. I’d encourage you to visit acponline.org/advocacy to stay current and to take action on the issues that matter most to you.
These are not easy times, but they are important ones. The work we do as internal medicine physicians – and the advocacy we undertake on behalf of our patients – has never mattered more.
As always, I welcome your thoughts and feedback at cknightfacp@fastmail.com.
Chris Knight, Governor || Washington Chapter – American College of Physicians
clknightfacp@fastmail.com
Save the Date! 2026 Annual Chapter Meeting
November 7th: In-Person & Virtual Streaming from Bell Harbor International Conference Center
November 8th: In-Person Seattle Watch Party & Virtual
Our 2026 Annual Meeting Co-Chairs Sheida Aalami, MD and Ahmed Salahudeen, MD are excited to welcome you back for one day at Bell Harbor and one day from a Seattle Watch Party.
On November 6th, we will be in-person at Bell Harbor International Conference Center including the same engaging content in plenary sessions, workshops, our annual Doctors Dilemma competition, posters and abstract presentations, an awards reception, and time to network with other fellow physicians. This program will be offered hybrid so if you cannot make it in-person, you can still hop on virtually.
On November 7th, you can attend in-person at the Seattle Watch Party with approximately 50-100 colleagues or from the comfort of your home. All breakouts will be streaming from separate rooms from our in-person location.
Registration will offer full conference which consists of 2-day in-person (with option to be virtual either day), or virtual-only for both days.
A heartfelt thank you to our speakers, presenters, planners, and all 250 attendees who contributed to another energizing and outstanding annual WA ACP meeting in November 2025! The annual meeting has always been a rarefied opportunity to connect with our ACP community and learn from and with each other, and based on your evaluations, this year’s conference continued that tradition. Our new hybrid format this year gave us the opportunity to spend the first day together in person for our first set of plenaries and workshops and evocative Story Slam stories, the John Vassall Annual Lecture for Justice & Equity in Medicine with Jason Deen, MD discussing his work with the Center for Indigenous Health, the Resident Jeopardy Competition and Chris Knight’s last reception as governor. Our second day was hosted virtually with excellent resident oral presentations, and some of us were able to gather in person at the Inatai Foundation’s Seattle office for a watch party and more time with our community. In addition to foundational topics such as health equity, continuous glucose monitor use, COPD and asthma management, practice changing articles etc… we also added a focus on medical education with a workshop on direct observation in the clinic, and a workshop for trainees and program leaders on applying to fellowship. And of course, we congratulated and honored our chapter and national awardees!
2026 Doctors Dilemma & Abstract Competition Winners
This year’s competition brought an incredible level of engagement, with another well attended competition and a standout poster session at our annual meeting. Nine compelling oral presentations added even more depth to the program. The caliber of submissions made narrowing it down to one winner per category a true challenge.
Our Top Medical Student Poster award went to Caroline Toombs from the University of Washington for her case: A Rare Case of Multisystem Complications From Phenazopyridine in a Cancer Patient; Hemolysis, Methemoglobinemia, Acute Kidney Injury and Pancreatitis.
Our Top Resident Poster award to Dr. Michael Huang with Virginia Mason Franciscan Health with his case on Falsely Elevated Troponin in a Male with Chest Pain.
Our Top Oral Presentation award went to Dr. Opeyemi Tobalesi from Washington State University Internal Medicine Residency, with his talk When Seizures Aren’t Seizures: A Case of Cardiac Tamponade-Induced Convulsive Syncope. Dr. Tobalesi will represent our chapter at the National Meeting in San Francisco this April.
And last but not least, congratulations to back-to-back Doctors Dilemma Winners: Trios Health!
2025 Washington Chapter Awards
We have so many amazing Chapter members – in this unprecedented and historically challenging year we celebrate the following individuals:
Caitlin Allen, MD
Alvin J. Thompson Internist of the Year
Gary Forbes, MD FACP
Washington Chapter Laureate Award
Chris Wong, MD FACP
Kemi Nakabayashi Chapter Service Award
Divya Gollapudi, MD FACP
Hospitalist of the Year
Joey Parker, DO FACP
Clinician - Educator of the Year
Bindu M Nayak
Community Service Award
Eric Wien, MD
Golden Apple Award
Zachary Gottschalk
Douglas S. Paauw MD Outstanding Student in Internal Medicine Award
Elson S Floyd College of Medicine
Alexia Caposio
Douglas S. Paauw MD Outstanding Student in Internal Medicine Award
Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences
Logan Bailey
Douglas S. Paauw MD Outstanding Student in Internal Medicine Award
University of Washington School of Medicine
Council of Student Members Update: Mentorship Program!
We are excited to provide an update on our new mentorship program, which launched in October 2024 with 14 physician mentors and 38 medical students from PNWU, WSU, and UW. Participants were organized into groups, each led by 2 mentors and consisting of 5 to 6 mentees. We have received excellent feedback thus far – mentors are enjoying connecting with students and reflecting on their experiences, and mentees are gaining valuable insights into the diverse career paths within Internal Medicine. As a result of the mentorship program, we have seen an increase in the number of student ACP members. We look forward to collaborating on additional opportunities to increase student engagement with ACP and provide support throughout their training. We would like to thank all our mentors and mentees for their participation in this program! We hope you have found this experience valuable and hope you will join us in the spring for a program-wide virtual get-together. This will be an opportunity to meet other ACP members, share stories, and host a Q&A for students with our mentors. Details to come! If you have any questions, feedback, or wish to become a mentor or mentee, please reach out to Joslyn Johnson, Council of Student Members Chair, at jLjohnson@pnwu.edu.
Joey Parker’s Teaching Corner
Over the past few months we spent time breaking in new senior residents on our wards, ICU, and night float teams. This is always a stressful time for the resident (and attending), and it’s nearly universal that the biggest fear new senior residents have in their role is that they “don’t know enough.” While I validate this thought, I sometimes smile, as for me, the biggest concern I have for new senior residents leading interns and medical students is that the senior resident takes care of the team. The Ancient Spartans were known as elite warriors, and their biggest sin was not losing their sword in battle, but rather their shield. This is because the shield helped take care of the person next to them. While a very loose association, for new senior residents we have to make our expectations clear – I care much more about how they take care of their team through closed loop communication, ensuring everyone knows where to go and where to be and at what time, that all tasks are followed up on, that consults are called in a timely manner and orders or recommendations are placed for each patient. Medical knowledge and teaching come with time, but for the new senior resident understanding how to lead a team should take priority in that first month. Think about this with new senior residents on busy hospital or ICU services. I hope everyone has a great start to 2026.
WA ACP Board Review Course is Back!
Talks include numerous audience response questions so attendees can self-assess knowledge and reinforce patient care skills with clinical problem-solving and evidence-based practice. Sessions will be recorded so attendees can review again short-term after the course.
Recordings of all sessions will be available until September 1st after the live course. You do not need to present at all of the live course to have access to the recordings. Please note: CME credits will not be available for this year’s course.
Washington DOH Podcast: You Matter: Voices in Health Care Featuring Carrie Horwitch, MD MACP
We’re delighted to highlight the latest episode of You Matter: Voices in Health Care, featuring our very own Dr. Carrie Horwitch, MD MACP.
The episode is now live on Spotify, and we invite you to take a moment to listen.
Listen to the episode: HERE.
During the conversation, Carrie offers thoughtful perspective and grounded expertise: speaking candidly about the realities of care delivery in this moment and the practical challenges and opportunities facing clinicians. We’re grateful to Carrie for sharing her voice and for the meaningful work she continues to lead.
New Internal Medicine Residency Program – MultiCare Spokane!
We’re pleased to share with our Washington Chapter colleagues the launch of a new internal medicine residency program in Spokane, developed by MultiCare Health System. Accredited by the ACGME in September 2025, this effort reflects a growing need for internal medicine physicians in the Inland Northwest—and a shared commitment to building that workforce in a way that is thoughtful, rigorous, and sustainable.
A key early milestone is the opening of our new adult primary care clinic in early April 2026, which will serve as the program’s core ambulatory training site. As highlighted in coverage from the Spokesman-Review, the clinic expands access to care while creating a modern, team-based environment well suited to residency training. It will anchor longitudinal clinic experiences and connect resident education directly to community need.
The program’s mission is to train excellent, compassionate physicians prepared for the full scope of internal medicine. Residents will train across inpatient and outpatient settings, with a strong emphasis on evidence-based, high-value care, systems thinking, and population health. Just as important, the program is designed to be a supportive, collegial environment—one where mentorship, coaching, and shared purpose are central to the experience.
We’ve also been intentional about physician well-being. This includes structured coaching, regular check-ins, and access to 24/7 mental health resources. And more broadly, we see well-being as deeply connected to agency and meaning in practice. Residents will be encouraged to engage in physician advocacy, understand the systems that shape care, and develop the skills to lead change. The goal is not just to prevent burnout, but to help physicians build sustainable, fulfilling careers grounded in purpose and impact.
Faculty recruitment will continue throughout 2026 as the program builds its teaching core. If this resonates with you and you are interested in opportunities with us or in future collaboration, we would welcome the conversation—please reach out to Matt Hollon, MD, MPH, MACP, at matthew.hollon@multicare.org.
Resident applications will open in fall 2026 for the 2027 Match, with the inaugural class starting in summer 2027—an exciting step forward for internal medicine training in Eastern Washington.
Matt Hollon, MD MPH MACP
Clinical Professor || UWSOM – GU Regional Health Partnership
Program Director, Internal Medicine Residency || Multicare Health System – Spokane
President-Elect || Washington State Medical Association
Regent || American College of Physicians
email: mhollonmdfacp@gmail.com, mfhollon@uw.edu
Spring Scientific Abstract Competition Submissions – Deadline April 5th!
Invitation to students, residents, chief residents, fellows-in-training, and early career physicians as well as their mentors and program directors. Open to training programs within the Washington ACP Chapter (including Armed Services Chapter members stationed in Washington State)
We encourage all abstracts relevant to the field of Internal Medicine. Please note, however, that while most abstracts at our fall meeting are Clinical Vignettes, for our SPRING SCIENTIFIC session, we only accept abstracts in the following categories:
-Scientific research: Scholarship that advances medical knowledge; can include basic science or clinical research.
-Quality improvement / High value care: Scholarship that improves care delivery by increasing quality of care or reducing unnecessary costs.
-Medical education: Scholarship that describes an innovation or improvement in how we teach the practice of medicine.
Awards:
-The Top Place Medical Student and Resident Poster awardees will win $150!
-The Top Place Resident Oral Presentation awardee wins attendance to the National ACP Conference in 2027 in Washington DC.
Program Date: Monday, May 18th, 2026