VCU School of Medicine Wins Excellence Award for Family Medicine Interest Group

The Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine’s Student Family Medicine Association won an American Academy of Family Physicians 2012 Program of Excellence Award for its outstanding activities in generating interest in family medicine.

Award winners will be honored July 27 at a ceremony at the AAFP National Conference of Family Medicine Residents and Medical Students in Kansas City.

The Program of Excellence Awards recognize medical school organizations for their outstanding performance in family medicine, community service, promoting the value of primary care, exposure to family medicine and family physicians, professional development and measures of success.

The VCU School of Medicine SFMA was honored for providing leadership training to members and for its strong collaboration with the VCU Department of Family Medicine, family medicine residency programs and community family physicians. The group established fmConnect, a separate group designed for third- and fourth-year students to maintain contact and provide programming that accommodates these students’ complex schedules as they complete clinical rotations.

“Family medicine interest groups are essential to building our family physician workforce at a time when the nation increasingly needs primary care doctors,” said Perry Pugno, M.D., vice president of education at the AAFP. “The [family medicine interest groups] help medical students understand the professional challenge and personal satisfaction of being a family physician.”
For more information, visit fmignet.aafp.org/poe.