ACOFP President

By Ronnie B. Martin, DO, FACOFP dist.

May 13, 2008

Tragedy in China
As I prepare tonight’s blog, reports of the major earthquake in Chengdu, Sichuan, China are coming across the news. Thousands of lives have been lost and hundreds of thousands of individuals are injured or displaced, a tragedy of historic proportions.

As a representative of ACOFP, along with other family medicine physicians and representatives of the AOA, AOF and Heart to Heart International, I have made two trips in the past year to this area of Southwestern China. We went to assist leaders in health policy and public health leaders in developing primary care residency programs to train physicians to meet the future needs of this region. We also worked with medical educators to develop programs to retrain current specialty physicians to become the “generalist” physicians as well as develop outpatient clinical systems that are needed to meet the growing needs of their citizens and patients.

William J. Burke, DO, FACOFP from Ohio and Royce Keilers, DO, FACOFP, dist. ACOFP past president from Texas, are scheduled to return to China later this month to continue our efforts in faculty development and development of a primary care infrastructure in the province. Like many regions in our own country, the need for health care is acute and the health care system is not meeting the needs of its patients. In most of China, up to 50 percent of the population have no access to health care and many of those who can gain access to a physician or hospital cannot afford the medical care they need.

The Chinese government has come to realize that a system founded on hospital care, dependent only on physicians who specialize in the treatment of disease and disability rather than the promotion of health, management of chronic disease and preventative health practices is not sustainable. I am waiting on our country to do the same.

Alert on Heparin from the FDA
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is asking that health professionals and facilities please review and examine all drug/device storage areas, including emergency kits, dialysis units and automated drug storage cabinets to ensure that all of the recalled heparin products have been removed and are no longer available for patient use. Although product recall instructions were widely distributed, they may not have been fully acted upon at all sites where heparin is used. There have been many reports of deaths associated with allergic or hypotensive symptoms after heparin administration. In addition, FDA would like to inform health professionals about other types of medical devices that contain, or are coated with, heparin.

This tragic situation should serve as a reminder for us all to regularly check the expiration dates on medicines and supplies used in our practices, and to ensure that we keep the medication list in our patients’ charts up-to-date so that we can respond to medical alerts. .

Back to Campus
Congratulations to Danielle Lynn Barnett, OMSI at A. T. Still University School of Osteopathic Medicine in Mesa Arizona. The ACOFP Student Chapter President there, she has also been elected ACOFP National Student Executive Board Parliamentarian. She was presented with the distinguished student service award for 2008 by the Arizona ACOFP State Society. Immediate Past President Kelli Ward, DO, MPH, FACOFP, Chairperson of the ACOFP Public Relations Committee, presented the award at their annual meeting.

Arizona has two Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine, A.T. Still University School of Osteopathic Medicine in Mesa, and Midwestern University Arizona College of Osteopathic Medicine in Glendale, as well as a strong state society of more than 165 DO’s, and 300 active members of the national ACOFP. Arizona however does not have an adequate number of osteopathic family medicine resident positions to meet the needs of its graduates, with only three programs and less than 10 first year positions available. Consolidation and changes in operations of the hospitals, challenges to the funding of GME and the cap imposed by the budget reconciliation act of 1997 all have acted to limit opportunity for students in a state with significant health care needs. Leaders from the American Academy of Family Physicians in Arizona, such as James Dearing, DO, FACOFP and leaders from ACOFP such as Dr. Ward and Mitch Kasovac, DO, FACOFP, are working to increase the number of primary care and family medicine positions available in order to meet the health care needs of the state.

Make your opinions known! Send an email to me and ACOFP. Share your thoughts, make comments, and tell us what you have been doing in regards to osteopathic family medicine.

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