Chapter activities honored with John Tooker Evergreen Awards

ACP announced five John Tooker Evergreen Awards to Chapters on April 20. The John Tooker Evergreen Awards Program provides recognition and visibility to Chapters that have successfully implemented programs to increase membership and member engagement, improve communication and chapter management, enhance diversity, and foster careers in Internal Medicine. The following is a list of the 2020 winners, including a description of their program. For more information on a program, contact Julia Baldini at jbaldini@acponline.org

Colombia: Establish the First Colombia Point of Care Ultrasound Training Course in Internal Medicine. The Colombia Chapter identified that point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) capabilities in general internal medicine will improve patient care and outcomes given the possibilities of appropriate, expedited diagnosis of certain conditions. POCUS in general internal medicine is nonexistent in Colombia. Although internal medicine subspecialties in the country already have POCUS programs, including cardiology, vascular medicine, endocrinology, and rheumatology, it had been difficult to start a general internal medicine POCUS program in Colombia because of opposition from radiology. Working with ACP's International Office and Membership Division, and benefiting from the support of Renee Dversdal, MD, FACP, director of the POCUS program at Oregon Health & Science University, the Colombia Chapter developed a curriculum, identified national champions of POCUS, and did the first training to 40 Chapter members in October 2019.

Indiana & Chile: Celebrating 10 Years of Sisterhood and Collaboration. The partnership between the Indiana and Chile chapters started in 2009 to share ideas and resources in order to promote interest and engagement in ACP among internal medicine residents, medical students, and early-career physicians. The relationship fostered ongoing collaboration and communication. The Indiana Chapter also promoted research among Chilean internal medicine residents by awarding a stipend for the author of the top research poster at the Chile ACP Chapter Meeting to attend the annual ACP Internal Medicine Meeting in the United States. During this period, the Chile Chapter has experienced an increase in the number of resident, student, and early-career members; has increased their numbers and engagement in their poster and oral presentations by these member groups; and has established a Doctor's Dilemma competition with assistance and guidance from the Indiana Chapter. In 2019, the Chile Chapter took advantage of the ACP Ambassador Program to sponsor the Indiana Governor to attend the Chile Chapter meeting. This visit allowed the next phase of the relationship to begin, with sharing of two presentations of global importance to a well-attended Chile Chapter meeting (topics were “Update on Tuberculosis” and “Infectious Complications of Intravenous Drug Use”).

New Jersey: Community Outreach Project. The New Jersey Chapter realized that in order to make a big impact in meeting the needs of the underserved, they needed to work in local communities with customized programs designed for the populations served, rather than doing one large statewide program. In 2018, the New Jersey Chapter's Membership and Diversity Committee, working with the Resident Council, developed a formal initiative, inviting the state's internal medicine residency programs to identify needs specific to the communities they serve and develop an outreach/community service project based on their assessment of local needs. Programs were created in conjunction with the ACGME Clinical Learning Environment requirements and submitted to the New Jersey Chapter for an opportunity to present their work at the 2019 state chapter scientific meeting. Ten residency programs participated and presented the results of their project at the meeting.

Oregon: Women in Medicine Month Social Media Campaign/Initiative. Building on the success of social media to foster physician learning, teaching, mentoring, role modeling, and connectivity in new and novel ways, the Oregon Chapter dedicated their Twitter feed and Facebook posts to Women in Medicine Month and highlighted a breadth and depth of women in medicine topics, both inside and outside of Oregon, resulting in more member engagement, both in knowledge and in the volunteer hours spent developing the social media posts.

Pennsylvania: A Podcast Learning Curriculum to Encourage Advocacy. The Pennsylvania Chapter developed a program to enhance localized grassroots advocacy skills through a series of short (15-minute) online educational and informational podcasts on advocacy topics, including advocacy versus lobbying, interviews with members on how they got started in advocacy, how to give testimony, and interviews with legislative staff on effective strategies. This program allows the Chapter to engage members at all levels and ages as well as provide a resource and member benefit while simultaneously working to improve the lives of patients and the professional working environment.

Texas: Healing the Healers: Building Resilience for Physicians. In 2017, the Chapter's Wellness Champions initiated the Wellness Committee to help address the needs of physicians and members and the patients they serve. Following educational training at Internal Medicine Meeting 2017, and in collaboration with initiatives of the College, the Committee set out to learn more about members' needs and create a sustainable plan and initiatives to address those needs as a committee at the local level. Following a needs assessment in the form of a Mini-Z Survey to collect information from members about their wellness challenges, the Chapter now has a thriving Wellness Committee and a number of member-led initiatives, including wellness-focused programming at the annual meeting and in regional events, Resilience in Medicine stories from members, and most recently, an On Being a Doctor Essay Competition and Chapter Story Slam, Best Practices Sessions, and a mini-grant opportunity with funding for wellness initiatives across the state.

In addition to the John Tooker Evergreen winners, ACP is giving special recognition to five Chapters for their effort to implement new programs: Arizona for Increasing Annual Scientific Meeting Attendance, Hawaii for Rock the Docs, Massachusetts for Health and Public Policy Subcommittee Structure, New York for their three programs, Campaign to Support Legislation in NY to Permit Medical Exemptions Only for Immunizations, Early Adopter Incentive Program: Helping Physicians Empower Patients, and Opioid and Pain Management Education, and Washington for Strategies for Clinicians to Prevent Firearm Injury & Death CME Event.