Family Medicine for America’s Health (FMAHealth. org) is a collaborative effort of 8 national family medicine organizations including the Association of Departments of Family Medicine (ADFM). FMAHealth has recommended that each sponsoring organization have a patient/public member on their board of directors. ADFM, in collaboration with FMAHealth, is conducting a 2-year pilot on the value of adding a public member to the ADFM Board of directors. The purpose of this pilot is to determine if the inclusion of a public member from outside of academic departments of family medicine will bring insights and a perspective that enhance the work of the Board in advancing the mission of ADFM. The public member will serve a 2-year term (February 2018–February 2020). ADFM will conduct an evaluation of the pilot program to inform a decision about whether to continue to include a public member position on the Board after the conclusion of the pilot phase in 2020.
The Mission of ADFM is to transform care, education, and research to promote health equity and improve the health of the nation. Among our stated values is “Compassion: We commit to keeping the patient as the central focus.” We see this pilot of including a public member perspective on our Board as closely aligned with this value and keeping the patient at the center of what we do. In referring to this position as a “public member,” we also envision the role as contributing to all of ADFM’s mission areas, which include research, education, and public service, in addition to patient care. The hypothesis to be tested is that an individual who is not from within our internal “family” of academic departments, but who appreciates our mission and is committed to the success of departments of family medicine, will bring complementary views and experiences that enhance the work of ADFM.
Even prior to FMAHealth’s suggestion to add a patient/public member to the boards of our family medicine organizations, the American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM), the North American Primary Care Research Group (NAPCRG), and the American Academy of Family Physicians Foundation (AAFPF) had public members on their boards. They reported favorable experiences from broadening board membership. In fact, NAPCRG and the ABFM have increased the number of patient/public members to 2 and 3, respectively. FMAHealth, learning from their experience, has encouraged other family medicine organizations to expand their membership to include a patient/public member.
Finding the “Right” Person
In response to the encouragement by FMAHealth to include a patient/public member, the consensus of the ADFM Executive Committee was that it would be of value to ADFM to move in this direction on a pilot basis. Recognizing the desire for a patient/public member who can understand the broad mission of our academic constituent groups, we sought to recruit a public member with experience working in organizations, health systems, or larger academic entities (Table 1).
Duties and Desired Qualifications for a Public Member on the ADFM Board
ADFM is very pleased to have received a number of applications from outstanding candidates. We are delighted to announce that Julie Moretz (Chief Experience Officer / Assistant Vice President, Patient- and Family-Centered Care, Center for Patients and Families, Augusta University Health System, Augusta, Georgia, https://jagwire.augusta.edu/archives/42306) will be serving in this unique pilot endeavor. We look forward to reporting the results of our evaluation of this pilot.
- © 2018 Annals of Family Medicine, Inc.
