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New Mexico Governor's Newsletter May 2018

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In this Issue:
- Governor's Message
- Looking for Physicians to Support New Opioid Initiative
- Interesting Feedings of the Mind
- Save the Date
- Welcome our new IMIG officers

Betty Chang, MDCM, PhD, FACP, FACCP, ACP Governor
Governor's Message
It is Spring!
I was walking home the other day, on a wonderful New Mexico spring windy day. Saw a giant tumbleweed heading toward me from across a field. I moved to get out of its way, but then it veered the same direction and hit me head on. It got stuck on my pants, and then it got stuck on my hands and jacket when I tried to push it off. The wind kept pushing it onto me. I flailed against a giant tumbleweed for the longest time, until I was finally able to get it down wind of me, and the wind finally took it away. Thank god, no one was videotaping my struggle. Spring in New Mexico = Attack of the tumbleweeds.
As many of you know ACP has been working on a project “Patients before Paperwork.” I credit CMS’ change in medical student documentation requirement to the hard work of the ACP advocacy office. CMS announced in February that medical student preceptors can use the medical student's complete documentation toward their own documentation so long as they were present for the students H&P or reproduced it on their own. If you want to read more about the new regulations.
Eileen Barrett and Michael Kaufman will be heading to Washington DC to lobby our congressional representatives regarding ACP policies. Thank you, Eileen and Mike, for continuing our ACP tradition of advocacy.
New Mexico had a great showing at the annual meeting. Eileen Barrett gave 4 talks (Targeting the 4th Aim of Physician Wellness, Promoting Physician Well-Being, Reimaging Quality Measurement and Accountability), David Scrase (Thieves' Market), Kendall Rogers (Making the EMR work for you not Vice Versa), and Laura Chambers-Kersh and Laura Shevy (ID for the International Volunteer). Our New Mexico resident Doctor's Dilemma® team made a strong showing, but lost it in final Doctor's Dilemma on the question, “The most common cutaneous manifestation of Systemic Mastocystosis.” Answer: “Urticaria Pigmentosa.”

Doctor's Dilemma team

Enjoying time with some of our residents at IM2018

Poster presenters
It was great to see those who attended the ACP annual meeting in New Orleans. We will be having the New Mexico reception again next year on the Friday of the meeting. Look for that email announcing the time and location. It is a great way to connect with your colleagues.
Looking for Physicians to Support New Opioid Initiative
The ACP and the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry (AAAP) are looking for physicians with at least 2 years of experience in prescribing medications for addictions, who can serve as Technical Assistants to address opioid use disorder in their region. If selected, the TA consultants would receive $100/hour up to 10 hours per week.
If you are interested, let me know, and I can send you more information.
Interesting Feedings of the Mind
For those of you who like podcasts, look at “The Curbsiders Internal Medicine.” I find them pretty enjoyable discussions of various clinical topics. For early career physicians, there is a new ACP blog which contains topics that may be interesting for residents, fellows, and early career physicians.
Save the Date
The 2018 Annual NMACP meeting will be November 1-3 at the Sheraton Uptown in Albuquerque. We hope to have the agenda planned in the next couple months. It looks great so far.
Welcome our new IMIG officers
Burrell Osteopathic College of Medicine
President – Jessalyn Lance
Vice President – Sidra Shah
Secretary – Kirk Thorpe
Treasurer – Mario Soliman
Director of Community Outreach – Oussama Abbad
Director of Research – Matthew Baska
Faculty Advisor – Muneer Assi, DO
University of New Mexico, School of Medicine
President – Helen Nordquist
Vice President – Jose Clement
Secretary – Shannon Ramey
Treasurer – Venus Barlas
ACP Liaison – Sajitya Podila
Faculty Advisor – Justin Miller, MD and Lida Fatemi, DO