STFM Podcast: July 2022

The STFM Podcast

July 2022: Family Medicine’s Place in Advocacy with Andrea Anderson, MD, FAAFP

On this episode of The STFM Podcast, host Saria Carter Saccocio, MD, speaks with Andrea Anderson, MD, FAAFP, about the many ways advocacy is central to family medicine. Dr Anderson talks about how naming your areas of passion will help you find a powerful advocacy voice. She encourages physicians and faculty to share the stories of their patients to engage with health system & government stakeholders. Sharing these patient stories will shed light on the impact of policies on people in the community.

Hosted by Saria Carter Saccocio, MD, MHA, FAAFP

Resources:

STFM Resources:

Articles:

URM JAM Podcast Episode:

Episode 16: Serve Your Community Through Family Medicine Advocacy with Jehni S. Robinson, MD, FAAFP

Andrea A. Anderson, MD, FAAFP:

Andrea A. Anderson, MD, FAAFP is a Family Physician and an Associate Professor. She is the Associate Chief of Family Medicine at the George Washington School of Medicine and Health Sciences where she chairs the school’s clinical curriculum committee, co-directs the Health Policy Scholarly Concentration, and directs the Transitions to Residency Fourth Year required internship readiness capstone course. Nationally, she serves on the Board of Directors of the American Board of Family Medicine and is the first African American woman to be appointed to this role in the ABFM’s 50-year history. Other national roles include serving on the Board of Directors of the Federation of State Medical Boards, the national Management Committee of the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE), and the National Advisory Council of the National Health Service Corps.

Through her career, Dr. Anderson has been active in DC health policy and medical regulation as well as teaching ethics, professionalism, and physician advocacy to medical students and residents. She is the Chair of the DC Board of Medicine, licensing and determining regulatory policy for approximately 15,000 DC physicians. She is an appointee to the DC Health Scientific Advisory Committee advising ethical and equitable COVID 19 vaccine distribution in the nation’s capital. In addition to the Management Committee of the USMLE, she is a subject matter expert for national committees of the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME), namely the Patient Characteristics Advisory Panel and the Legal/Ethical Task Force. She sits on the FSMB National Ethics and Professionalism Committee and the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Medical Regulation Task Force, creating national guidelines for state medical licensing boards. Dr Anderson is a Senior Medical Education Consultant for the AAMC looking at curricular innovations to combat medical misinformation. Society of Teachers of Family Medicine (STFM) has been her professional society home as she serves National Underrepresented Minority Faculty Development and Retention Task Force and the Academic Family Medicine Advocacy Committee (AFMAC). Previously, Dr. Anderson spent 15 years in practice at Unity Health Care, a large Federally Qualified Health Center network in Washington, DC, where she served in leadership roles including Medical Director of Family Medicine. Dr Anderson has testified widely before various outlets including 2019 invited testimony before the Senate HELP committee to increase congressional funding for the National Health Service Corps. She has been honored with various awards including the STFM 2019 National Advocate Award, the 2021 AAFP Exemplary Teaching Award, and the 2021 Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award from the Arnold P Gold Foundation.