AAFP expert panel: Advice for family physicians

What’s one piece of advice every family physician needs to hear?

Three experts weighed in during AAFP 2013.

They are: John Bender, MD, senior partner and CEO at Miramont Family Medicine in Fort Collins, Colorado; Marci Nielsen,  PHD,  CEO of the Patient Centered Primary Care Collaborative; and Samuel Nussbaum, MD, executive vice president of clinical health policy and chief medical officer for Wellpoint.

• Bender: Resolve to take time to get off the treadmill. Go back to your practices and set aside an hour each week to work with your team.

• Nielsen: Be brave and embrace the power that you already have. You are so powerful and so important to the patients you take care of, but you can be so important to your communities, to public policy makers.

• Nussbaum: You have the most important responsibility and you’ve accepted that in caring for patients. Put the patient as the focus of all you do.

Tweets From AAFP 2013

@MedEconomics: The future of #healthcare in this country is about teams. We must continue to be the leader of our team. Reid Blackwelder, #MD #aafpsa @aafp

@dwramzimdmph: Healthcare at 20% GDP is stealing from resources from other sectors of the economy... From the social determinants of health. #aafpsa

@MedEconomics: The top concern facing family #physicians? #Payment reform, according to @AAFP survey. #aafpsa

@DoctoraChispas: 40% of patients not clear on the care plan when leaving our offices. Health literacy for pt engagement. -Dr. Epperly #AAFPSA

@MedEconomics: Incentivize #primarycare to keep patients out of #emergency rooms to bend the #healthcare cost curve, says John Bender, #MD #aafpsa @AAFP

@MedEconomics: Family medicine is aligned to bridge #medical care and public health. That’s never really been achieved. Marci Nielsen #aafpsa @aafp @pcpcc

Follow: @MedEconomics

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