The last time I felt the need to write an editorial I was in Florida and my subject was politics and why we cover it.
Well, I'm in Florida again and I'm talking about politics again, but this time it is the politics -- and more -- of organized medicine. I'm in Orlando where the American Academy of Family Physicians is winding up its Congress of Delegates (COD) and transitioning to the Family Medicine Experience or FMX.
The Congress is the place where representatives of the AAFP's local chapters get together to make policy decisions for the national organization. It is a lot like the AMA's House of Delegates, and both are a whole lot like what happens in state and federal legislatures or at student councils for that matter: lots of "whereas ... resolved" language covering a wide range of issues.
At this year's COD the delegates -- a well-spoken and well-prepared group -- debated issues ranging from how to improve the AAFP's process for electing new officers to the benefits of a single-payer "publicly financed, privately administered" (whatever that means) system. The delegates -- two from every local chapter as well as representatives from student, resident, young, minority, and LBGTQ constituencies, meet in the convention area of a hotel -- several hundred FPs attend this gathering.
FMX, on the other hand, is the "scientific" part of the AAFP gathering and it is attended by thousands of FPs. It is there that keynote speeches are given -- Atul Gawande will be giving his regular stump speech for this year's opening ceremony. It is there that the AAFP offers hundreds of CME sessions as well as dozens of non-CME policy sessions. It is also here that industry -- pharmaceutical, device, publishing, business software vendors, etc., -- sets up elaborate booths and displays.
I don't know exact details because the AAFP does not permit press to attend FMX.
It wasn't always that way. FMX used to be called the AAFP Annual Meeting and Scientific Sessions and it did welcome press.
I know this because I used to cover it as Special Projects Editor for Physicians' Management Magazine, Bureau Chief for IMNG's Family Practice News, contributing writer for WebMD and Medscape, contributing writer for UPI, ReutersHealth, and Good Housekeeping.
There was quite a bit to write about then, just as there is always a good deal of news to be found at the American College of Physicians, which uses the same basic format as FMX for its annual meeting.
Long before shutting down all press access, the AAFP barred the press from the exhibit hall at the meeting -- that ban followed a TV report that showed doctors receiving gifts (this was pre-Sunshine law) from exhibitors -- a very unflattering takeaway.
Admittedly, I have not personally covered the AAFP in recent years, but I was nonetheless stunned when told about the no-press rule at FMX, so I asked , PR director for the AAFP, for an explanation.
"It just wasn't worth the investment," she said. "Only two or three reporters showed up."
Investment? "You mean the cost of maintaining a press room?" I asked.
"Oh no," she said. "It's the cost for staff to help manage the press."
At the COD that management involved returning my phone call about press registration for myself and Ryan Basen; handing each of us a press badge when we arrived in Orlando; explaining that we could get COD information by downloading the COD app; and pointing us to a table (three seats) where press could sit in the back of the room as the COD conducted business.
It is true that there are only three reporters here at the COD: two from 番茄社区app and one from Medscape -- but we three are writing articles that are being read not only by FPs, but also by other MDs, DOs, NPs, and PAs in all specialties.
Seems like a good investment to me.