At the end of July a group of UTMB Health medical students, family medicine residents and staff attended the 2015 Annual American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) National Conference in Kansas City, MO. The AAFP National Conference is an annual conference where people connect who share the passion of family practice, learn the ins and outs of family medicine and meet with potential residency programs and employers. The 3 day event is filled with events, educational lectures, an expo hall and lots of networking and social activities.
UTMB Health Family Medicine residents Ana Lucia Siu-Chang, MD, Tracey Angadicheril, MD and chief resident Rebecca Burke, MD represented UTMB during the resident recruitment fair, engaging with hundreds of prospective applicants across the US and beyond. An additional feature to our recruitment this year was our photo booth, where applicants could take pictures and share with social media or print as a keepsake.
Dr. Burke served as alternate delegate for the TAFP (Texas Academy of Family Physicians) and helped present a resolution to offer a Diabetic Patient Care Card on AAFP's website to encourage patient participation in personal healthcare outcomes.
Dr. Angadicheril attended a leadership seminar where she learned about ways of telling your own personal story to motivate others from a group that started their own Family Medicine interest group in Colorado.
Dr. Siu attended the global health networking session and met organizations involved in global health and discussed different routes of delivering global health; from short term medical trips that make long term impacts outside the U.S, to taking family medicine as a specialty to parts of the world where the specialty doesn't exist or is not well established.
A special thanks to Shannon Samuelson, Diedra Walters, and Shirley Pearson for their dedication to recruiting applicants as well during the conference.
Thanks to funding by TAFP UTMB Health was able to send a group of medical students to participate at National Conference. Here is are a few words from one of our 4th year medical students, Petra Kelsey,
“This year I attended the National AAFP meeting in Kansas City. This was my first AAFP meeting and I was excited to join other enthusiastic medical students from around the country for this conference. UTMB was well represented in Kansas City with a total of nine students in attendance.
I enjoyed spending the first day attending several lectures such as one on “Clinical Dermatology for Family Medicine Providers”, the “Do’s and Don’ts of Applying to Residency” and “Preparation for Intern Year” as well as many others. This was interspersed with visits to residency program booths. I spoke with approximately 40 programs and found at least 6 new programs of which I had never heard, which I will definitely be applying to.
We are very grateful for the funding that we received this year. The travel expenses to attend a conference like this are high and so this funding made it possible for us students to attend. Thank you TAFP for your support
I had an enriching experience at this conference and feel better prepared to continue on my journey to becoming a well-prepared family medicine physician.”
Look for us next year in Kansas City at the 2016 AAFP National Conference. Until then, enjoy some of the photos from this years’ conference.
Pictured Above Left: Rebecca Burke, MD, Catalina Triana, MD, and Tracey Angadicheril, MD. Above Right: Rebecca Burke, MD and Shirley Pearson
Pictured Left to Right Top: Vincent Oyler, Adolfo Grajeda, Jr, Lauren Walden, Tori Shepard, Lola Longe, Anthony Ng and Nicholas Wilhelm. Bottom: Shannon Archabal and Petra Kelsey.
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Left: Petra Kelsey, Tori Shepard and Lauren Walden.Above: Shannon Samuelson
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