WVAFP

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Improve patient care and bridge your knowledge gaps with AAFP self-study CME—when and where it’s convenient for you—and help your chapter earn additional revenue through the AAFP Self-Study CME Revenue Share program.

Self-Study Packages

Use AAFP self-study packages to enhance your expertise and expand your knowledge on common family medicine topics. Featuring recorded audio and video presentations from current AAFP live courses, these interactive self-study packages include:

20-30 hours of content, with 18-32 lectures between 30 and 60 minutes in length
Opportunities to report CME and evaluate after each lecture
Interactive quiz interface to briefly halt the presentations and choose an answer
200-plus page full-color PDF of the slides
Post assessment (online)
Choose the package format that’s right for you:

Online Access

Study when and where you want with a one-year online subscription. Smartphone/tablet compatible. Includes an interactive quiz interface to briefly halt the presentations and choose an answer, and a PDF color syllabus.

Online Access with USB Flash Drive

A one-year online subscription smartphone/tablet compatible, a USB Flash Drive, audio CDs with select packages, and a print and PDF color syllabus.

How to Benefit Your Chapter through the AAFP Revenue Share Program
At checkout, add 4MYCHAPTER in the source code box (see below) and a portion of your purchase revenue will be shared back with your chapter.

Purchase HERE

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As you may know, Atlantic Health Partners is the nation’s leading vaccine buying group and works with many of our Chapter members. Atlantic offers you the most favorable prices for a wide range of vaccines from Merck, Sanofi Pasteur, Pfizer, and Seqirus.

Atlantic can help strengthen your immunization efforts by providing the lowest vaccine prices, and:

-Support with booster and back to school vaccines such as TDAP, Meningitis, and Meningitis B immunizations
-An outstanding flu and pneumococcal program, along with an expanded shingles vaccine offering
-One stop shop for Sanofi and Merck vaccines

We encourage you to contact Cindy or Jeff at 800-741-2044 or info@atlantichealthpartners.com to see how your practice can benefit from their program and customer service.

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April 12, 2018 – James M. Mears, MD a family physician from Charleston, WV was the recipient of the West Virginia Academy of Family Physicians highest award – Family Doctor of the Year for 2018.  The award was presented by Dr. Mary Ann Maurer during the West Virginia Academy of Family Physicians (WVAFP) 66^th Annual Scientific Assembly held on April 12, 2018 at the Embassy Suites in Charleston, WV.  

The Family Doctor of the Year Award honors an outstanding, community-minded family physician that provides compassionate, comprehensive care.  Dr. Mears was recognized for being a role model to medical students and resident physicians as well as to his physician colleagues.  He is noted for his tireless devotion to improving the quality of life for his patients and bettering his community. 

Dr. Mears is an Assistant Professor, Department of Family Medicine, Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center of West Virginia University, Charleston Division and Clinical Assistant Professor of Family Medicine, West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine.  A board-certified family physician, Dr. Mears completed medical school at the Marshall University’s Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine in 1988.  He did his family medicine residency at Charleston Area Medical Center, affiliated with West Virginia University, Charleston, WV.  In addition, Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship at The Ohio State University, Wexner Medical Center and School of Medicine, Columbus, OH. 

Founded in 1948, the West Virginia Academy of Family Physicians represents more than 1,000 physicians and medical students statewide.  It is the largest medical specialty society devoted solely to primary care.  The West Virginia Academy of Family Physicians is a chapter of the American Academy of Family Physicians. 

To learn more about the specialty of family medicine, the AAFP’s positions on issues and clinical are, and for downloadable multi-media highlighting family medicine, visit www.aafp.org/media.  For information about healthcare, health conditions and wellness, please visit the AAFP’s award-winning consumer Web site, www.FamilyDoctor.org

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Protect West Virginia’s Kids from Candy-Flavored Tobacco

By Dr. Joseph Reed

While West Virginia has made some headway in reducing cigarette smoking, tobacco use remains a huge problem in our state. In fact, the Mountain State has both the highest high school smoking rate (18.8 percent) and the highest adult smoking rate (24.8 percent) in the country.

Smoking is a key reason why West Virginia is considered one of the least healthy states, with high rates of tobacco-related conditions like heart disease and cancer. Every year, tobacco kills 4,300 West Virginians and costs us $1 billion in health care expenses.

In Upshur County, where I work, more than half the kids in 4th and 5th grade live in homes where tobacco is used. We are working through local coalitions and the health department to promote smoke-free and tobacco-free lifestyles, including electronic cigarettes. However, we can’t do it alone.

Without support from West Virginia’s elected officials, we won’t be able to make and sustain meaningful progress toward reducing the toll of tobacco in our state. It makes no sense that state lawmakers recently voted to eliminate funding for the state’s tobacco prevention and cessation programs.

Even worse, this action comes as tobacco companies are finding new ways to target our kids. In recent years, they’ve flooded the market with electronic cigarettes and cigars in a wild array of sweet flavors that sound like they belong in an ice cream parlor or candy shop. One study found over 7,700 different e-cigarette flavors, like cotton candy, bubble gum and cherry crush. Between 2008 and 2015, the number of cigar flavors more than doubled from 108 to 250.

Unfortunately, these tactics are working to increase tobacco use. Nationwide, e-cigarette use among high school students grew by 900 percent between 2011 and 2015, passing regular cigarettes as the most widely used tobacco product among kids. It is promising that youth e-cigarette use dropped in 2016, but it is too soon to know whether this is a long-term trend.

Once again, the problem is worse in West Virginia. Over 31 percent of West Virginia high school students use e-cigarettes, way more than smoke the regular kind. And over 17 percent of our high school boys smoke cigars.

To address these new challenges, West Virginia needs to step up its tobacco prevention efforts. We also need strong action by the Food and Drug Administration, which oversees the manufacturing, marketing and sale of tobacco products. Last year, the FDA issued new rules for e-cigarettes and cigars, aimed at protecting kids and public health.

But tobacco industry lobbyists are working overtime to roll back these rules. One bill they’re pushing in Congress would greatly limit FDA oversight of e-cigarettes and cigars already on the market. Another bill would completely exempt some cigars from the FDA’s purview.

Unfortunately, some West Virginia members of Congress are supporting these harmful efforts. Just this summer, Rep. Evan Jenkins voted for a House appropriations bill that included these two provisions. In addition, Sen. Joe Manchin is a cosponsor of the cigar exemption bill.

These West Virginia leaders should reconsider their positions in light of the health risks that cigars and e-cigarettes pose and their popularity with kids. Health authorities have found that cigar smoking causes several types of cancer, including lung cancer, and claims about 9,000 lives in the U.S. each year. Congress shouldn’t create a new loophole that tobacco companies would exploit to exempt some cheap, machine-made, flavored cigars that are attractive to kids.

E-cigarettes also pose health risks to kids. A recent Surgeon General’s report concluded that youth use of nicotine in any form can lead to addiction and harm brain development, with lasting effects on attention, learning and susceptibility to addiction. Several studies have also raised concerns that youth use of e-cigarettes could lead to use of other tobacco products, including regular cigarettes.

West Virginia’s U.S. senators and representatives should be working to protect kids from these new tobacco threats. We cannot let tobacco companies get away with using candy-flavored products to hook a new generation.

http://wvpublic.org/post/windows-health-care-part-2-50-years-family-medicine-joseph-reed