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April 2005 Announcements APAP’s 2005 Semiannual Meeting will be held from May 27 to 29, in conjunction with AAPA’s 33rd Annual Conference in Orlando, Florida. Educational sessions, produced and moderated primarily by PAs, provide an excellent resource for faculty, preceptors, and those considering these roles, as well as others interested in educational issues affecting the profession. All APAP sessions (with the exception of meal functions) are open to registrants of AAPA’s Annual Conference at no additional cost. A two-day Clinical Coordinator’s Workshop, requiring separate registration and tuition, will precede the official opening of the meeting. The Peabody and the Rosen Centre will serve as the conference co-headquarters hotels. There will be no APAP hotel headquarters, since most of the APAP events will be held in the Orange County Convention Center. Housing facilities are located around the convention center and must be made through Navigant International. Attendees contacting the hotels directly will be advised that they are sold out, as rooms are blocked for the AAPA Annual Conference. The Hotel Reservation Request Form is available in the AAPA Advance Registration booklet, sent out in December 2004, or on-line at www.aapa.org/annual-conf. From April 22 through June 2, only on-site registration is possible. Only those attendees booking their hotel reservations through AAPA’s official housing vendor, Navigant International South Central, are eligible to ride the AAPA shuttle buses to and from the convention center, the Peabody, and the Rosen. Navigant’s phone numbers are 866/805-6918 or 713/ 369-1241. Although hotel reservations many not be made by phone, Navigant representatives can answer questions. CME Credit To Be Awarded for Select APAP Sessions The APAP Semiannual Meeting has been reviewed and approved for a maximum of 5.75 hours of professional Category I CME credit by the Physician Assistant Review Panel. Physician assistants should claim only those hours actually spent participating in the CME activity. Sessions Approved for Professional Credit
Please see APAP’s Final Program for complete descriptions of all sessions being offered at the Semiannual Meeting. Syllabus Material for AAPA/APAP Meetings In order to ensure that syllabus materials are timely, they will be available only from the AAPA Conference Web site. If you wish to have free print copies of syllabus materials, please print them before reaching Orlando. You will be unable to print syllabus materials at the On-site Message Center. To print syllabus materials, go to the 2005 Conference Planner and select the appropriate CME session. Not all AAPA presentations have handouts. Syllabus materials are posted immediately upon receipt from faculty and remain on the conference Web site for one year. Please remember that the conference Web site may be extremely busy from May 25-31. Plan your schedule early and allow plenty of time to print out the syllabus submissions for those sessions you plan on attending. Print syllabus materials will be also be available for purchase on-site. Faculty and Programs Win Recognition
Justine Strand Named Outstanding PA of the Year APAP offers its congratulations to Justine Strand, M.P.H., PA-C, named Outstanding PA of the Year by AAPA as part of its 2005 PAragon Awards program. Strand serves as a director at large on the APAP board and is chief of the PA Division in the Department of Community and Family Medicine at Duke University. She will be honored at the Academy’s Annual Conference in Orlando. Strand commented, “It is an incredible honor to be recognized by one’s peers, a privilege to be a PA and part of the PA educational community, and challenging and exciting to have been part of the development of the PA profession.” Look for in-depth articles highlighting Strand’s career in upcoming editions of the AAPA News.
Doris Rapp Winner of AAPA Publishing Awards Doris Rapp, Pharm.D., PA-C, took second-place in AAPA’s 2005 Publishing Awards. This award honors PAs who authored outstanding articles published in peer-reviewed journals during calendar year 2004. Rapp was lead author of “Weight-reduction Surgery — Past and Present,” which was published in JAAPA in April 2004. Rapp is program director at the Surgical PA Program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. With co-author John Gleysteen, M.D., medical director at the Alabama program, Rapp outlined the benefits and risks of a surgical approach to weight loss, the conditions that affect the amount of weight lost, and why the Roux-en-Y gastric bypass is the bariatric surgery most commonly performed in the United States.
Allan Platt Winner of AAPA Publishing Awards Allan Platt, PA-C, placed third in the AAPA 2005 Publishing Awards for his article, “Sickle Cell Disease Management,” published in the January-February 2004 issue of ADVANCE for PAs. The article, coauthored by two physicians, is a basic guide to the history and current management of sickle cell disease and advances in its treatment. It also explores the role of bone marrow transplant and gene therapy as a potential cure for the disease. Mr. Platt is webmaster for the Sickle Cell Information Center at www.SCInfo.org and Co-coordinator of the distance-based, postgraduate Master of Medical Science degree for Career Physician Assistants for the Emory University PA Program in Atlanta, Georgia.
Innovations in Health Care Award Goes to Patti Pagels Patti Pagels, M.P.A.S., PA-C, faculty person and assistant professor of physician assistant studies at the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth, was named a recipient of the 2004 Innovations in Health Care Award. The award is given jointly by the Physician Assistant Foundation, the AAPA, and Pfizer Pharmaceuticals to recognize physician assistants who develop innovations in clinical practice and in PA educational programs. PATCH — Positive Attitude Toward Changing Habits — an innovative program that seeks to change old habits, was established four years ago as a joint effort between Pagels and several other faculty at the health science center. PATCH helps current smokers quit over a three-month period through nicotine patches, exercise, and behavior modification. Pagels will receive her award, which includes a $5,000 grant to continue PATCH, at the AAPA Annual Conference in Orlando.
Jodi Cahalan Promoted to Dean APAP offers its congratulations to Jodi Cahalan, M.P.H., M.S., PA-C, program chair at the Des Moines University PA Program since 1994, on being named Academic Dean for the College of Health Sciences at the University. Ms. Cahalan joined the faculty of DMU in 1989 and has served as its program director since 1994. Her fellow faculty say they will miss Cahalan’s daily presence at the program, as will the students. She will continue to teach in the program and serves as a member of the APAP National PA Honor Society Advisory Committee. Cahalan commented on her appointment: “I am very excited about this new position. There are five programs within our college that include entry-level and post-professional doctor in physical therapy programs, health care administration, public health, and physician assistant. I am very thankful that I will still have involvement in PA education and plan on remaining active within APAP and working with all of the wonderful colleagues across the country and at DMU.”
Rosalind Franklin
University Wins Innovations in The Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Sciences recently received the 2004 award from the Innovations in Health Care: AAPA/PA Foundation/Pfizer Recognition Program. APAP President Patrick Knott, Ph.D., PA-C, is program director of the Chicago-based PA program, which developed the Multidisciplinary Education Program to introduce its first-year PA students to a team approach to health care. Other team members taking part in the first course, MTD500 Interdisciplinary Health Care Teams, included PhD students and those who intend to enter medicine, podiatry, clinical psychology, physical therapy, clinical laboratory science, and pathology assistance. The students worked with an African-American male with diabetes and each week, as a group, worked through a new problem. In addition to the learning required to function as a team, the students completed research assignments to demonstrate an understanding of the roles of other health professionals. The award — and MTD500 — is described more fully in the April 30 issue of the AAPA News and quotes Knott as saying, “If we’re successful, we’ll have students showing up for their clinical rotations saying, ‘Introduce me to the other members of the team.’ ”
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APAP Update - April 2005 |