About the Chapter

Welcome to the Web site for the Michigan Chapter of the American College of Physicians.

Dear Colleagues,

I was reflecting on the recent Board of Governors Meeting and the national ACP meeting in San Diego and recognized that there are several things that we need to be very proud about in terms of what our College has accomplished.

Over the last year, the College has worked very closely with the American Board of Internal Medicine to try and revamp the recertification process for general internists.  This has resulted in three pathways for the general internist.  As of 2018, the general internist may still do recertification with the secure examination at ten year intervals.  A second option is another examination which will be not a secure examination but have identified reference material to refer to during the examination and be at two year intervals.  There is a third pathway that the ACP and ABIM are considering at this time.  This pathway has not been finalized but is considering utilization of MKSAP as a method for achieving recertification.  It is because of the vocal efforts of the ACP that the ABIM has undergone this restructuring.  We must keep in mind that the intent is for the internist to maintain lifelong learning as well as achieve the highest standards of internal medicine without being overly burdensome or intrusive into your practice.  We also continue to emphasize the added costs in terms of the fees as well as time lost from practice that the general internist incurs and there have been efforts made to reduce this financial burden.

The College also has taken a stance against the efforts to repeal the affordable care active making sure that we continue to have healthcare available for the 30 million people who have had this provided to them over the last seven years since the availability of the ACA.  Our advocacy group and lobbyists in Washington have worked quite closely with our representatives to advise them about the potential harm that the repeal of the ACA would have.  The American College of Physicians joined with the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Physicians to voice the strongest opposition to the repeal of the ACA.  We recognize that there are many differences of opinion in this area and that there are opportunities for improvement of the ACA.  We will have to await to see what happens with the Senates revamping of the most recent repeal passed by the House.

Finally the American College of Physicians took a stance against the President’s initial immigration plan which would have band immigrants from seven countries.  There are many physicians from these countries who provide care as part of residency programs as well as practicing physicians in the United States.  A banning of immigrants from these countries was not felt to be in the best interest of delivering healthcare for our country.  We are grateful that the administration backed off on this and we are hopeful that we can continue to work within the advocacy process that will make the administration aware of how physicians from so many areas throughout the world are critical to the delivery of healthcare in the United States.

You can obtain more information at the ACP website on all of these areas.  I would encourage you to go to the American College of Physicians website and take advantage of many educational resources that are available at that site.

On May 5^th, we had our Residents Day Meeting which again set record attendance with over 415 at the Wyndham in Sterling Heights.  There were 200 posters and 30 oral presentations.  I was very proud of the performance of residents from throughout the State of Michigan in terms of their scholarly activity accomplishments.  We have included the winners on our chapter website for you to review.  Our meeting was highlighted by a keynote speaker, Dr. Darilyn Moyer who is the Executive Vice President  and CEO for the American College of Physicians in Philadelphia.  She gave an inspiring presentation  about the Joy and the Challenges of Internal Medicine.  In addition, Dr. Paul Kilgore gave us an update on the states immunization practices which are extremely critical to improving the quality of care and preventing illnesses for our patients.

Overall this was one of the most outstanding Residents Day Meetings that I have attended and I would like to express my appreciation to Central Michigan University Saginaw Campus and Dr. Patricia Dhar, for chairing this year’s session.  Next year’s meeting will be chaired by Dr. Ben Diaczok from St. Joseph Mercy Oakland.

On the same day, we cohosted a meeting with the Society of Hospital Medicine for Medical Students Day.  There were 80 posters presented by medical students from throughout the State of Michigan.  These included both research and clinical vignettes.  Dr. Sara Hartley chaired this meeting along with her committee that worked very hard in recruiting students and judges.  In addition, Dr. Sarah Hartley’s team established the first Medical Students Day Doctor’s Dilemma.  This was an exciting forum in seeing students compete in a fashion similar to what residents had during Residents Day.  They were excited and inspired about internal medicine and I believe this program will continue to grow in attracting many interested students.

We look forward to seeing you in Traverse City on October 19 to the 22^nd, 2017, for our annual meeting.  We have a very exciting program that has been identified many outstanding speakers from Michigan as well as some out-of-state speakers.  The program co-chairs Dr. Leonard Johnson, Dr. Stephanie Czarnik, and Dr. Aimee Espinosa have done an outstanding job of bringing together an excellent program.  Dr. Sara Hartley and her team also worked very hard to develop the student program which we feel is very important for the future growth of our College.

I wish you all of pleasant summer and I look forward to seeing you this fall.

Louis D. Saravolatz, M.D., MACP
Governor
Michigan Chapter
American College of Physicians

Past Michigan Chapter Award Winners

Congratulations to all of our past winners!