The Show-Me-State Update is your source for the latest news and information impacting the medical community. Time-sensitive information and requests related to healthcare, advocacy issues, and professional development opportunities from MAFP are included.

April 2025 – MAFP News & Events

Upcoming MAFP Conferences: Mark Your Calendars

We are excited for the Midwest Obesity Symposium, September 12-13 in Hermann, MO and Annual Fall Conference, November 6-9 in Kansas City, MO.  Registration is live for both events, so please consider registering and encouraging your colleagues to join you. 

Calls for Presentation are due by May 31, 2025, if you are interested in presenting CME to your family medicine colleagues at the Annual Fall Conference. The Education Commission has set a priority on engaging presentations, so please consider interactive, non-traditional, and innovative teaching methodologies.  

Please reach out to MAFP Member Experience Manager Andrea Holloway (aholloway@mo-afp.org) with any questions or if you’d like to present but are struggling to come up with a topic.   

Patel KC Star Op-Ed

The Kansas City Star published an op-ed by MAFP Board Chair Afsheen Patel, MD (Why we must protect Medicaid, health care access in Missouri | Kansas City Star), encouraging our US Senators to oppose Medicaid cuts.  This was a coordinated effort complementing AAFP legislative efforts and member outreach to help ensure healthcare access for Missourians.  Following these efforts, Senator Josh Hawley has been quoted as saying, “I’m not going to vote for Medicaid benefit cuts.”  MAFP sent a letter to his office from MAFP President Natalie Long, MD, thanking him for his efforts supporting Medicaid funding. 

Contact the Board: New Email Address

MAFP members now have a direct connection to the board.  Any member can contact the board at board@mo-afp.org.  All e-mails sent to that address will automatically be forwarded to the Board Chair.  The intention with this e-mail is to embrace transparency and empower members to connect directly with us with any questions, concerns, or suggestions. 

Feel free to share this e-mail address (and Bill’s – bplank@mo-afp.org) with colleagues who say, “I wish MAFP did….” 

AAFP Member Satisfaction Survey

The 2025 AAFP Member Satisfaction Survey is now open. Active and Resident members have received an email with personalized links to the survey. Members can also access it directly at https://insights.aafp.org/s3/0106e181f68f, where they will be prompted to sign in with their member ID. 

Responses help direct the AAFP’s efforts to protect and elevate the family medicine specialty. Last year, the Board of Directors used the feedback to prioritize: 

• Administrative simplification so members can focus on patient care
• Better payment that reflects family medicine’s value
• Freedom for family physicians to practice to the full scope of their training and much more

Visit the Member Satisfaction Survey web page for an FAQ, details of efforts that the 2024 survey results influenced, and other opportunities for members to guide the AAFP’s work. 

AAFP Board of Directors Candidates Announced

During its Oct. 4-6 meeting in Anaheim, California, the AAFP Congress of Delegates will vote on candidates for director, president-elect, vice speaker and speaker. 

The slate of candidates announced today includes nine director candidates put forth by the AAFP Nominating Committee as well as one put forth by a chapter. All the candidates will attend the AAFP Leadership Conference, April 24-26, in Kansas City, Missouri, and participate in a Candidate Orientation and Development Program. 

This is the second election cycle in which candidates have been put forth by the committee, a process which was established by the COD in 2023. 

“One of our challenges and opportunities are, how do we look at bringing forward perspectives that should be considered by Congress?” said Nominating Committee Chair and past President Reid Blackwelder, M.D., FAAFP, associate dean for graduate medical and continuing education at East Tennessee State University’s Quillen College of Medicine. “Ultimately, it’s Congress’s decision. But this is a great group of people, and I’m super excited about the voices and experience they bring.” 

The candidates for consideration by the COD this October in Anaheim are: 

President-elect

• Kisha Davis, M.D., M.P.H., FAAFP, Maryland
• Jay Lee, M.D., M.P.H., FAAFP, California
• Teresa Lovins, M.D., FAAFP, Indiana

Speaker

• Russell Kohl, M.D., FAAFP, Oklahoma

Vice Speaker

• Daron Gersch, M.D., FAAFP, Minnesota

Director

• Brian Bachelder, M.D., FAAFP, Ohio
• H. Griffin Cupstid, M.D., FAAFP, South Carolina
• Raymond Ebarb, M.D., FAAFP, New York
• Tracy Hendershot, M.D., FAAFP, West Virginia
• Camellia Koleyni, M.D., FAAFP, Tennessee
• Aaron Lanik, M.D., FAAFP, Nebraska
• Robyn Liu, M.D., M.P.H., FAAFP, Oregon
• Martha Simmons, M.D., FAAFP, Pennsylvania
• Douglas Spotts, M.D., FAAFP, Pennsylvania
• Tina Tanner, M.D., FAAFP, Michigan

Improve Health Outcomes by Detecting Type 1 Diabetes Early 

Detecting Type 1 diabetes early will leave a lasting impact on the lives of your patients. Build on your skills to screen for and monitor Type 1 diabetes to improve health outcomes for those living with the condition in a new episode of the AAFP’s Inside Family Medicine podcast. 

In this episode with Dr. Sean Oser, get the latest insights on screening and treating type 1 diabetes. Strengthen your clinical approach and help improve quality of life for patients living with this condition.  

The AAFP is here to help you with valuable resources, including this podcast episode and a new fact sheet for patients and an updated page on FamilyDoctor.org. 

Explore the latest valuable clinical resources to immediately implement in your practice. 

Recruiting Pediatric Primary Care Providers for Study to Help Youth Anxiety  

The Managing Anxiety in Pediatric Primary Care (MAPP) Study is a project funded by the National Institute of Mental Health to develop a brief primary care provider (PCP) delivered intervention to reduce anxiety symptoms and improve functioning in  6–to 17-year-old youth. The study provides free training and coaching for PCPs and provides compensation to PCPs for completing study requirements! We are currently recruiting PCPs to be trained in and to deliver the MAPP intervention to youth patients. If you are interested in joining a training or want to learn more about the MAPP study, please email mapp@uchc.edu.