The 23rd National Conference on Primary Health Care Access to be Held April 16-18, 2012 at the Park Hyatt Aviara Resort in Carlsbad, California

The Twenty-Third convocation of the National Conferences on Primary Health Care Access will be held April 16 through 18, 2012 (concluding at noon on April 18th) at the Park Hyatt Aviara Resort in Carlsbad, California. The theme of the conference is “Realities and Illusions”. The first of the three conference days will concentrate on the health care reform legislation that was enacted in 2010, but whose implementation remains unsettled and controversial. The second and third days will be devoted to the primary care physician “pipeline” – both in medical school and in postgraduate residency programs – particularly strategies to counter the geographic and specialty maldistribution of physicians in the United States.

Background of the National Conferences on Primary Health Care Access

In 1990, a group of persons interested in family and community medicine, medical school reform, and advocacy for rural, inner city and other geographical areas of need, were invited to rural Wisconsin for the First National Conference on Primary Health Care Access [See Archives of the National Conferences – The First National Conference’s Opening Remarks – April 20, 1990.] Since then, similar groups have been invited to assemble each Spring.

Over the years, many of the pioneers, key strategists, researchers and policy makers who have promoted the idea of community-responsive medical education have participated in one or more of the National Conferences. (Many have participated in 15 or more of the 22 conferences held through 2011.)

The National Conferences have continuity in the conference faculty from year to year. The conferences are limited to approximately 50 participants. Persons who enroll in the conference series are invited to renew their space in each subsequent conference. For additional information on the series of National Conferences, see: The Background of the National Conferences on Primary Health Care Access.

Continuing medical education prescribed units will be awarded. (For the CME awards of each of the previous National Conferences, see: CME Prescribed Credits for National Conferences on Primary Health Care Access.)

When the National Conferences began in 1990, there appeared to be a consensus among its participants that if legislation was enacted to increase access to primary health care, rural and underserved populations would be the principal beneficiaries of the reform.

That may yet prove to be the case, but many persons who strongly supported changes in national health care legislation have deep reservations about both the processes and the product of the legislation enacted in 2010.

Of course, enacting legislation at the federal level is only the first step in changing the way the health care system works. Not only do different sections of the comprehensive bill become operative at different times, almost every line of the legislation requires new regulations or revision of existing regulations.

Some (maybe much) of what the legislation requires will generate ongoing political debates, which often will be so divisive as to make the particular future policy stands of legislators and other policymakers (or even whom they may be) unpredictable at the present time.

Even so, there is much opportunity for constructive change, and those areas will be a central theme of the Twenty-Third National Conference.

Each of the National Conference sessions begins at 6:30 a.m. and is comprised of early morning breakout groups with assigned topics. (See an example of last year’s breakout session at 21st National Conference – Reports from Monday Breakout Sessions – April 12, 2010.)

All National Conference business ends at noon each day, permitting conferees to enjoy the surroundings of one of the world’s great destination areas for the remainder of that day with family or colleagues.

Information on the National Conference’s plenary sessions will be posted as they are announced.

The posting of the proceedings of previous National Conference plenary sessions relevant to the 23rd National will take place continuously.

This will include a series of presentations on Community-based Medical Education that are preparatory to discussions on this subject at the Carlsbad conference.

For information on the Twenty-Third National Conference, which is invitational, please contact [email protected]

23rd National Conference Plenary Faculty (announced as of March 25, 2012)

Marc E. Babitz, MD, Utah Department of Health, Salt Lake City

Sally Bachofer, MD, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque

Peter Broderick, MD, Valley Family Medicine Residency Program, Modesto, California

William H. Burnett, MA, Coastal Research Group, Granite Bay, California

Mary T. Coleman, MD, Ph.D., Louisiana State University, New Orleans

Rick Flinders, MD, Santa Rosa Family Medicine, Santa Rosa, California

Hector Flores, MD, White Memorial Medical Center, Los Angeles

N. Benjamin Frederick, MD, Penn State Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, Pennsylvania

Joshua Freeman, MD, Kansas University Medical Center, Kansas City

John Geyman, MD, University of Washington Emeritus, Friday Harbor

Thomas Hansen, MD, Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska

Kevin Haughton, MD, Providence Health Systems, Olympia, Washington

Tim Henderson, MPH, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia

James Herman, MD, Pennsylvania State University/Hershey Medical Center, Hershey

Asma Jafri, MD, San Joaquin General Hospital, Stockton, California

Mitchell Kasovac, DO, A. T. Still University, Mesa, Arizona

Jay Lee, MD, Memorial Medical Center, Long Beach, California

Darryl Leong, MD, MPH, Care 1st Health Plan, Monterey Park, California

Gary LeRoy, MD, Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio

Don McCanne, MD, Physicians for a National Health Program, San Juan Capistrano, California

Charles Q. North, MD, MS, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque

Cynthia G. Olsen, MD, Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio

Anna Peck, Student Doctor Network, Iowa City, Iowa

Perry A. Pugno, MD, MPH, American Academy of Family Physicians, Kansas City, Kansas

J. Jerry Rodos, DO, Midwestern University, Western Springs, Illinois

Robert Ross, MD, Cascades East Family Medicine, Klamath Falls, Oregon

Joseph E. Scherger, MD, MPH, Eisenhower Hospital, Palm Springs, California

Frederic N. Schwartz, DO, A T Still University, Mesa, Arizona

Daniel Webster, MD, Michigan State University, Traverse City

Allan J. Wilke, MD, Ross University, New Brunswick, New Jersey

Ramiro Zuniga, MD, San Joaquin General Hospital, Stockton, California

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