The Louisiana Academy of Family Physicians Foundation is happy to announce that it will provide scholarships to medical students seeking a career as a family physician to attend the 64th Annual Assembly and Exhibition in New Orleans, LA. The conference will be held on August 4-7 at the Hotel Monteleone. Medical students can attend this conference FREE of charge! Scholarships are available for travel and lodging expenses. An application and 500 word essay on why the student is interested in attending the 64th Annual Assembly and Exhibition along with why they are interested in becoming a family physician is required. All applications will be reviewed and approval will be based on financial need and sincere interest in the specialty of family medicine. Applications must be postmarked by June 1, 2011. Scholarships are made possible by the LAFP Foundation through donations provided by LAFP members.

Another successful National Conference for Family Medicine Residents and Medical Students took place in Kansas City on July 29-31. Preliminary attendance included 828 Students, 1,054 Residents (including Resident Exhibitors), 936 other Exhibitors, and 382 others (including staff, speakers, Chapter staff, etc) for a grand total of around 3,200. According to the AAFP, this is the largest conference in the last number of years.

The theme of this year’s conference was “Health Policy: Building a Better Health Care System”. Such a theme was evident throughout the conference, as workshops, lectures, and other events centered on the popular topic of health care reform. Health care policy was not the only matter of business at this year’s convention. Chapter delegates participated in daily congress business sessions to discuss policies, write resolutions (to eventually be voted on and sent to the AAFP Board of Delegates) as well as vote on resident and student officers for the upcoming year. Louisiana’s Resident and Student Delegates include: Lacey Millet, MD (Resident Delegate), Admir Seferovic, MD (Resident Alternate-Delegate), Larissa Thomas (Student Delegate) and Renee Gravois (Student Alternate-Delegate).The conference truly offered something for everyone’s interests. Each of the three days were filled with presentations and workshops on career planning, clinical skills, health policy and advocacy, leadership development, practice management and research opportunities.

The conference exposition hall provided residents and students an opportunity to gain information from over 1600 exhibitors from across the country. Exhibitors included residency programs, medical associations, medical equipment companies and much more. As an exhibitor, the LAFP had the opportunity to highlight Louisiana’s ten (10) Family Medicine Residency Programs and provide information regarding the various job opportunities for family physicians upon completion of residency. The interest among student attendees was much greater than anticipated and Louisiana’s resident exhibitors did a GREAT job promoting Family Medicine in “Who Dat” nation! Resident exhibitors include the following:

• Admir Seferovic, MD (LSUHSC – Shreveport Family Medicine Residency Program)
• Lacey Millet, MD (LSUHSC-New Orleans at Lake Charles Family Medicine Residency Program)
• Laura Dwyer, MD (East Jefferson General Hospital Family Medicine Residency Program associated with Tulane University School of Medicine)
• Nana Yaw Sarkodie, MD (LSUHSC-New Orleans at Kenner Family Medicine Residency Program)
• Richard Imsais, MD (LSU Rural Family Medicine Residency Program – Bogalusa)
• Ronald McLendon, MD (LSU Rural Family Medicine Residency Program – Bogalusa)

Conference attendees that stopped by the LAFP booth were given a “taste” of southern hospitality. Booth giveaways consisted of Louisiana products including Zapp’s potato chips, Tabasco sauce, Community Coffee, Tony Chachere’s seasoning and Leah’s pralines. All Louisiana attendees were given a “Who Dat” t-shirt to wear during the Opening Social held on Thursday, July 29th in the Exposition Hall. The theme of the Opening Social was “GO TEAM GO!” and the black and gold state was well represented with a total of six (6) resident attendees and nineteen (19) student attendees.

A special thanks to Lee Ann Albert, RN and Clay Coco with Med Job Louisiana for their help with decorating and staffing the booth! Please read the following National Conference highlights from Louisiana’s Resident and Student Delegates. For more information on the resident and student election results and resolutions, please visit the AAFP website at www.aafp.org