ACOFP CA Member ENewsletter

Quarter 4 2010

Osteopathic Autonomy Restored

Governor Schwarzenegger on August 17th
signed into law SB 1050 (Yee, D-San Francisco), legislation sponsored by the Osteopathic Physicians & Surgeons of California (OPSC) to remove the two naturopathic doctor positions from the Osteopathic Medical Board of California (OMBC) and to separate the functions of the Naturopathic Medicine Committee (NMC) from those of the OMBC. OPSC is extremely pleased with the outcome of this more than year-long intensive effort. In addition to removing the two naturopathic doctor positions, the bill adds two public members to the OMBC and clarifies that the NMC is solely responsible for the licensure and oversight of naturopathic doctors.
The legislation goes into effect January 1, 2011.

Read Full bill language

ACOFP-CA Mission Statement
To promote and advance the standards of family practice in the field of osteopathic medicine and surgery.

To be the leader in the osteopathic profession in the provision of primary care.

To promote access to health care to the American public.

To enhance the public's awareness of services rendered by osteopathic family physicians.

To encourage and improve the educational opportunities for the training of family physicians in osteopathic medicine and surgery.

ACOFP Board of Directors

Alesia J. Wagner, DO, FACOFP
President (2009-2011)
Canyon Country , CA

M. Jay Porcelli, DO, FACOFP
Immediate Past President & Secretary
Pomona, CA

Ernest H. Agresti, DO, FACOFP Treasurer
Roseville, CA

Linda M. Agresti, DO, FACOFP Convention Chair
Granite Bay, CA

Steve Kamajian, DO, FACOFP
Director
Montrose, CA

Jim Lally, DO, FACOFP
Director
Chino Hills, CA

Rick Hirsch, DO
Director
Upland, CA

Steven H. Barag, DO, FACOFP
Director
Rancho Cucamonga, CA

Justin Dufner, DO
Resident
Chino Valley Medical Center

Gharibian Nayiri
Student @ Western U-COMP

Ethan Allen, DO, FACOFP
Director - Emeritus
Norwalk, CA

Volunteer Opportunities

If you would like to serve on a 2010 state or national committee or board, please contact
Dr. Wagner at 661-678-2459 or alesia.wagner@ushworks.com

Attention: 2010 CME Certificates Have Been Issued

The ACOFP CA CME Certificates from the 34th Annual Medical Education Seminar held in Anaheim, August 5-8, 2010 have been emailed to all attendees with a valid email.
If you have not received via email:
1.Check your spam/junk email.
2.If you do not have a valid email registered with ACOFP CA, then your certificate was faxed, or if a fax number was not available, it was mailed.
3.Email admin@acofpca.org and let them know that you have not received your CME certificate and would like staff to look into the status. .

ACOFP CA CME Certificates Have Been Issued

Message from the President: Alesia J. Wagner, DO, FACOFP

Flu season is almost upon us - the latest from the CDC is that the 2010-2011 seasonal influenza vaccine protects against an influenza A H3N2 virus, an influenza B virus, and the 2009 H1N1 virus that caused widespread illness last season; initial doses of licensed vaccine were available in late August 2010.

A flu guide for parents is available for you to download and distribute at
http://www.cdc.gov/flu/pdf/freeresources/family/flu_guide_parents.pdf.

Pertussis is epidemic in California so consider consider this diagnosis in your patients and close contacts.

An information sheet, Think Pertussis, is available for download at http://eziz.org/PDF/IMM-1015H.pdf.

ACOFP-CA awards are designed to recognize California D.O.s in good standing as ACOFP-CA members who exhibit the exemplary characteristics of an osteopathic family physician. These include leadership and demonstrated commitment to osteopathic philosophy, patient care, community involvement, and education.

The California Physician of the Year 2010 deservingly was awarded to; Anita Kay Kalousek, D.O. FACOFP. In 2000, Dr. Kalousek joined the Department of Family Medicine at COMP as the Course Director for "Essentials of Family Medicine." A continuing passion for medical education has stimulated her to expand the scope of her duties over the past few years and currently she serves as the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs with oversight of all curriculum and student affairs for the Osteopathic Medical Students.
M. Jay Porcelli, D.O. FACOFP dist. received a special recognition award for his time and support of ACOFP
Steven D. Kamajian, D.O. FACOFP received a humanitarian award for his efforts in the community.
Chris Largent received a special recognition award for his time and support of the ACOFP National Auxiliary, serving as president in 2010/2011.

Thank much to ACOFP CA's Convention and site chair, Dr. Linda Agresti and program chair, Dr.Steven Barag, for their hard work on site at convention and the many months before.
Thanks to the tremendous support from our vendors, we had 50 vendors participate in our exhibit hall.

Message from the Resident Board Member
Justin Dufner, DO Chino Valley

Season for the Conferences

The California ACOFP Convention was held from August 5th to August 8th this year at Anaheim in Disneyland the hotel. This year’s convention was highlighted with many great lectures and opportunities to network. At the town hall meeting, Dr. Wagner spoke about the new SB 1050 Bill and how the osteopathic physicians were going to gain their autonomy back and how the naturopaths will longer be on the Osteopathic board.

Also ACOFP President Dr. Heiles was present at the town hall meeting and urged the importance of contacting the government on important issues involving osteopathic physicians. Dr. Heiles also updated everyone on issues that are going on across the nation pertaining to D.O.’s. Now approaching in the month of October is the OMED conference which will be in San Francisco, CA this year. It should be very exciting to have the conference in our home state of California. There are three main guest speakers who are Hall of Famer Football Coach Lou Holtz speaking about Motivational Medicine; Stuart Rothenberg who will discuss about the upcoming November elections; and David Blumenthal, MD, MPP discussing about health care information technology. With the upcoming OMED conference being in our home-state,

I hope to see many California osteopathic physicians representing California and wish everyone to enjoy the conference.
OMED 2010 – AOA/ACOFP Annual Medical Conference & Exposition October 24 – 28, 2010
Moscone Center San Francisco, California

Go to OMED Web site for online registration as well as airline and housing information. You can also download the registration form for faxing and mailing your registration.

Message from the Student Board Member
Nayiri Gharibian OMS-III WUCOMP

As the incoming Student Board Member, I’d like to first thank the ACOFP Board for this wonderful opportunity. I am truly honored to be the liaison between my fellow osteopathic medical students and the ACOFP-CA. I look forward to working with a team of physicians who are so passionate about Family Medicine and so dedicated to getting medical students excited about their careers.
If you are currently an OMS-I, the school year recently began and you are probably still in the midst of major life adjustments. Good luck to you all! Once you’ve settled in, I encourage you to join your school’s ACOFP chapter (membership is FREE!) and to try to get involved with the many outreach programs and activities they have planned. It is never too early to get to know your community and to start practicing your clinical skills through health fairs and other such volunteer opportunities.
As for the OMS-II students, you are now in your 2nd year of basic science training and are learning more about specific specialties of medicine. This school year will be considerably more difficult than the last but remember that you already have one year under your belt and are therefore so much more prepared. I encourage you all to buy one or two board review books now and begin using them alongside your class notes when you are studying. In the future, you will be so thankful you did so!
If you are currently an OMS-III student, congratulations on taking your first board exam and beginning an entirely new life – the life of rotations. Try to milk each and every rotation for what it’s worth. This is the time to fully immerse yourself in medicine and learn all you can from your patients. And finally, good luck to all the OMS-IV students currently going through audition rotations and preparing for the COMLEX PE exam!

Tel: 800-379-9292
Fax: (866) 222-8328
Email: admin@acofpca.org
Web: ACOFPCA.org