Family Medicine News & Views
Another Way to See
By Aaron Costerisan, MD - For a while now, I have been interested in what the medical humanities can offer us in our practice of medicine. Admittedly, my interest may have as much to do with the fact that [...]
Everything Changes: Sooner or Later.
By Brian McIntyre, EdD, LCP - There is a great deal of change currently happening in Family Medicine residency programs across the nation. The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) has determined that updates and changes to the curriculum [...]
The Patient’s Voice
By Kelvin Wynn, MD - Two years ago, while attending the annual Association of Departments of Family Medicine meeting, I attended a session on patient engagement and advocacy in healthcare. I was moved by the stories and information presented. Giving [...]
Administrative Tasks Take Up More Time than Patient Care for Many PCPs
By James Barnett, MD - A recent simulation time study stated it would take 26.7 hours a day for a PCP (primary care provider) to fulfill all demands for a 2,500 patient panel. PCPs face an exhausting time burden across [...]
Health, Healing, and Hope through Lifestyle Medicine
By Amy Zacharias, MD - It is not surprising that the rate of burnout for physicians has increased. The last few years have proven especially difficult for physicians due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the many challenges that came with [...]
Missing the Delivery Room
By Craig Griebel, MD - As many of you know (and some of you may not know) I cut back last year to 0.6 FTE (down to 3 days a week, basically). As part of that cutting back, I gave [...]
Growing the Garden, Together
By Dejan Maksimovic, DO - This will be year three of our garden at UICOMP and, although we’ve had some setbacks dealing with trees, deer, and other small furry creatures, we were still able to donate over 600 pounds of [...]
Health Equity Starts With Us
By Gauri K. Shevatekar, MBBS, MPH, CHES - With the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, as we witness its disproportionate impact on minority populations, the spotlight is back on the inequities in health and health outcomes. Undoubtedly, health equity is at the [...]
Journaling and 55-Word Stories for Wellness
By Meredith Lagouros, DO - I am one of those annoying people who loves New Year’s! Not only do I like the excuse to dress up, the colorful noisemakers, and having a nice meal on New Year’s Eve, but I [...]
Grateful to Be a Family Physician During Pandemic
By Asim Jaffer, MD - As we head into our third straight year of trying to return to a new version of normal, I wonder what history will ultimately show that we have learned from this global pandemic. I am [...]
Empathy for Self, Each Other, and our Community
By Rahmat Na’Allah, MD, MPH - It’s hard to believe it’s been a year and a half since I wrote my last blog addressing the disproportionate plague of teenage pregnancy and its lifelong impact on families and communities. I told [...]
Alumni Demonstrating Strength and Perseverance During Pandemic
By Melanie Andrews, MD - I sat down to write this blog post, the afternoon before it was due, after three reminder emails, and no less than four failed bribery attempts to get out of it. Dr. Wynn will [...]
What We Look for in Potential Residents
By Aaron Costerisan, MD - The residency academic year has its cycles and rhythms. Recruitment of new residents is more or less an ongoing effort, but it is escalating now toward its peak during interview season, which typically starts in [...]
What Teaching Students Has Taught Me
By Elizabeth Gabel, MD - We were all students at some point. A career in medicine is to never stop learning, and we continue to be students long after our graduation date. But as physicians, we are also teachers. [...]
Gratitude in Time of Turmoil: The Vaccination for Dismay
By Jeffrey Leman, MD - Gratitude: an emotion that we have all experienced, but what is it? The word Gratitude is from the Latin Gratia (meaning grace, graciousness, or gratefulness); that is a good starting point. Definitions in the literature [...]
How Family Medicine Physicians Step Up in Times of Crisis
By Craig Griebel, MD - We recently held our Family Medicine Interest Group procedures workshop. Students (M-1s, M-2s and M-3s) rotate through several workstations to learn skills of procedures performed by family physicians. It was fun to host the [...]
Be the Buoy
By Dominique Fons, MD - Ever since I started my teaching career, I have always felt that part of my role as an educator was to be a buoy in the rough and sometimes stormy sea of teaching middle schoolers. [...]
Thank You, Peoria
By Kari Beth Watts, DO - Waiting Children, they’re called: the thousands of orphans around the world who have a precondition that complicates their ability to be matched to an adoptive family. Perhaps they have Down syndrome, HIV, or a [...]
Land Acknowledgement: A Move Toward Reconciliation
By James Barnett, MD - "I/We would like to begin today by recognizing and acknowledging that the U of I System carries out its mission in its namesake state, Illinois, which includes ancestral lands of [...]
Finding Small Victories in 2020
By Jolyne Kaar, MD - Dear 2021, how to cap off 2020? A year’s review with highlights? January and February were my favorite months. And January 2020, like each year before, this year and now this new decade started [...]
The Challenge of a Sense of Humor
By Brian McIntyre, EdD, LCP - With everything that is going on in the world a sense of humor seems to be a difficult thing to maintain and that’s putting it mildly. We have a global pandemic, racial unrest here [...]
A Nation in Crisis: Is This the Wake-Up Call Needed to Change Healthcare and Improve Health?
By Amy Zacharias, MD - The pandemic spreading across our nation has brought many challenges and devastation to our country. Even though much is still unknown about COVID-19, it is known that many of those more severely affected by the [...]
Black Privilege?
By Kelvin Wynn, MD - Privilege is an advantage that is unearned, exclusive, and socially conferred. White privilege is deep-seated power irrespective of income, class, and effort. Therefore, how might one explain the inherent power of Black people? Recent events [...]
Addressing the Racial Disparity in Teen Parent Rates
By Rahmat Na’Allah, MD, MPH - It’s easy to get lost in medicine. We regularly deal with complex challenges, patients, procedures, etc. It’s not hard to forget the basics. To reconnect, I like to ground experiences in the people [...]
The Communal Garden
By Dejan Maksimovic, DO - Last year, when I heard chatter about getting a bigger garden near the clinic, my curiosity was piqued. Gardening has been a hobby of mine for several years now, starting with container gardening on [...]
At the Confluence of Two Worlds
By Gauri K. Shevatekar, MBBS, MPH, CHES - I still remember the first time I was leaving India for the U.S. — the tearful goodbyes, the way my father held my hand, and the look in my parents’ eyes as [...]
Where’s My Tribe?
By Meredith Lagouros, DO - Anyone that has been through the medical gauntlet—college, medical school, residency, and then that final test: employment—understands that finding your tribe is crucial to your success. When I say “tribe,” I mean that special [...]
Returning to Residency
By Laura Smith, MD - "Then why did you leave your rural practice?"This has been a common question in the past two-and-a-half years since I transitioned from working in a rural health clinic to being full-time residency faculty. Students, residents, [...]
Treating Addiction is a Radical Act of Love
By Melanie Andrews, MD - By way of introduction, it's important for you to know that I’m the hippie of the residency faculty. So with that said, I’m going to write about love. I’ve truly loved all aspects of family [...]
The CBD explosion: Miracle or hoax?
By Jeffrey Leman, MD - Cannabidiol (CBD): Since December 2018, you have seen it sold in gas stations, shopping mall kiosks, video stores and countless other places. What is behind this CBD explosion, and what are we to think about [...]
Alumni Chatter: Dr. Omo Oni
By Kelvin Wynn, MD - On this edition of Alumni Chatter, I am pleased to have a conversation with Dr. Omomengbe “Omo” Oni. Omo is a 2019 residency graduate and is staying in the Peoria area to practice at [...]
Maternity Care Crisis
By Craig Griebel, MD - I provide obstetrical care as part of my role as faculty member in the family medicine residency at the University of Illinois College of Medicine Peoria (UICOMP). Approximately 8% of family physicians provide obstetrical care, [...]
Cultivating Our Osteopathic Garden
By Dominique Fons, MD - When asked to describe myself, I say that I am a gardener in many aspects of life. I plant seeds and watch them grow. I add nourishment when needed and take advantage of good soil. [...]
Pendulum swing in medical education?
By James Barnett, MD - I recently met Dr. Maoxiim Tellez for breakfast at a favorite Springfield restaurant—Incredibly Delicious. (Indeed, it was that!) I set out to see how the Rural Student Physician Program (RSPP) had influenced Maoxiim. Maoxiim and [...]
Alumni Chatter: Dr. Keith Knepp
By Kelvin Wynn, MD - Healthcare has seen a significant change in its landscape, from technology and innovations to mergers, acquisitions, and competition. Effective leadership, particularly for healthcare organizations, is necessary to navigate this shifting landscape. In this edition of [...]
Human Trafficking: A Local View
By Jolyne Kaar, MD - It is likely that if you’ve watched the news, read articles online, or even seen a documentary over the past several months, you may have learned a thing or two about human trafficking. Human [...]
Alumni Chatter: Meredith Baumgartner
By Kelvin Wynn, MD - On this edition of Alumni Chatter, I caught up with Meredith Baumgartner, a fourth-year medical student, soon to be graduate of the University of Illinois College of Medicine Peoria. Meredith matched in to Family [...]
Lifestyle Medicine: The new prescription for health
By Amy Zacharias, MD - When you think of ways to improve your health, improved eating, increased exercise, stress reduction, and better sleep are just a few things that likely come to mind. But when was the last time [...]
A Call to Bring Us Back to the Bedside
By Aaron Costerisan, MD - If you are a family physician, I am guessing you have more than once consternated over the situation of family medicine in the United States. The day-to-day demands keep piling up and, at the same [...]
Alumni Chatter: Dr. Laura Smith
By Kelvin Wynn, MD - I had the privilege of interviewing alum and faculty member Dr. Laura Smith for this edition of Alumni Chatter: A native of Salem, Illinois and 2012 graduate of the UICOMP Family Medicine Residency Program [...]
Calling All Family Medicine Residency Grads
By Kelvin Wynn, MD - I would love to share with our readers and your fellow alums where you are, what you are doing, and the impact you are having on the community you serve, as well as the opportunity [...]
Serving Justice in Our Communities
By Kelvin Wynn, MD - The highly publicized police shootings of 15 young black men over the past two years troubles me. This issue, along with the increasing number of racially motivated hate crimes, has fueled the national conversation on [...]