Tag Archives: Family Medicine Congressional Conference

Leading the Way

Jen Hartmark-Hill, MD

Jen Hartmark-Hill, MD

One of my top priorities for staying involved in health care advocacy is to promote a better future for my students.

As a medical educator, I often ponder the uncomfortable paradox of training medical students to become “ideal” physicians, only to send them out into a far less than ideal health care system upon graduation. Preparing and educating future physicians to lead health care transformation is essential, but we who serve as educators and role models cannot stop there.

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Growing the Impact of Family Medicine Through Advocacy

Nicholas Cohen, MD

Nicholas Cohen, MD

Since medical school, I have seen the unrivaled value family physicians provide to the patients they see. I was unaware—until this month—of the impact family physicians can have beyond their clinic walls on the health of their community at the local, regional, and national level. Our potential impact in this expanded sphere became clear to me on a visit to Capitol Hill with the Family Medicine Congressional Conference.

 What is the Family Medicine Congressional Conference?

FMCC attendees outside the office of Senator Sherrod Brown, D-OH.

FMCC attendees outside the office of Senator Sherrod Brown.

It is a 2-day conference in Washington, DC, open to anyone in family medicine. Day one I learned about the current priorities in family medicine and received practical, hands-on training in advocacy. Day two I visited  members of  Congress with others from my state in prearranged meetings to engage legislators in issues important to me and my patients.

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