AAFP News Now -- American Academy of Family Physicians

Photograph of AAFP President Jim King, M.D.

AAFP Board Chair Jim King, M.D.

Guest Opinion

AAFP Was Your Bold Champion in 2008

(01/07/2009) -- No doubt about it: 2008 was a year we all couldn't wait to be over. But before we leave 2008 in the dust, I'd like to revisit it for a minute. In the midst of this last year's chaos and uncertainty, the AAFP stuck to its plan to be your bold champion. The Academy focused its advocacy efforts on the issues most critical to our specialty's survival -- especially health system reform based on primary care -- because as family physicians, we simply cannot thrive and take good care of our patients unless the health care system is transformed to respect and value what we do and to pay us appropriately for doing it. More (Members Only)

2008: The Year in Review

(01/07/2009) -- 2008 could well have been called the year of the patient-centered medical home, or PCMH. As increasing numbers of organizations, government agencies and officials, and private entities acknowledged the burgeoning U.S. health care crisis, the PCMH gained increasing prominence. From the halls of Congress, to privately funded think-tanks, to insurers, the cry became, "Turn the focus back to primary care," prompting the Academy and its primary care partners to push the PCMH, along with one of its key components -- payment for managing the medical home -- as the solution. More

New Study Expounds on Four Key Elements of PCMH

Report Focuses on Payment Reform, Need for IT

(01/07/2009) -- The ability of insurers and payers to promote and sustain the patient-centered medical home, or PCMH, model depends on four core elements that can make or break the medical home process, according to a new report issued jointly by the Center for Studying Health System Change and Mathematica Policy Research Inc., or MPR. More

2009 Kids, Teens Immunization Schedules Released

New Recommendations Reflect Expanded Flu Vaccination Coverage, Other Changes

(01/06/2009) -- The 2009 immunization schedules for children and adolescents increase the number of children recommended to receive annual influenza vaccination by about 30 million. That's according to the CDC, which released the schedules Jan. 6 in conjunction with the AAFP and the American Academy of Pediatrics. More

ACIP Provisional Recommendations

Smoking, Asthma Now Constitute Indications for Pneumococcal Vaccination

(01/06/2009) -- The AAFP has adopted recommendations from the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, for the 23-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine, or PPSV23. The provisional recommendations added smoking and asthma as indications for routine administration of PPSV23 in adults ages 19-64. More

Redesigned FamilyDoctor.org Puts AAFP on Cutting Edge of Patient Education

Videocentric Site Is First of Its Kind

(01/05/2009) -- A key resource for family physicians and their patients recently got an extreme makeover -- just in time for 2009. Thanks to a collaboration between the AAFP and multi-platform video distributor AnswersMedia Inc., the Academy's award-winning consumer Web site, FamilyDoctor.org, has a whole new look and a whole new sound. More