Q&A: New AAFP president outlines priorities

As the incoming president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, Tochi Iroku-Malize, MD, MPH, MBA, FAAFP, said she hopes to inspire members to work innovatively while preserving their well-being.

Iroku-Malize, a family physician in Long Island, New York, has been an AAFP member for more than 20 years. She said that her time with the organization has allowed her to “grow as an individual and be better able to work on issues that involve my patients, communities and my peers locally, nationally and internationally.”

“Primary care is very important to promote health and well-being in our country; if you place a family physician in a community, the health of those individuals improves,” she told Healio.

During her career, Iroku-Malize has focused on ensuring that family medicine is part of medical school curriculum and developing “innovative clinical and academic projects around the utilization of digital tools to enhance patient access to health care and to improve the quality of the physician workflow.” She is now focusing her efforts on meeting the needs of AAFP members.

In an interview with Healio, Iroku-Malize discussed her plans for her new position and how AAFP will help address some of the challenges facing primary care.

Healio: What are your priorities for the AAFP? What do you think the organization should be focused on right now?

Iroku-Malize: The AAFP serves over 127,000 physicians and students. My priorities are in line with the needs of our members. Based on their feedback, we know that the top issues we need to continue to focus on are payment reform and reduction in administrative complexity. Our current 3-year strategic plan is focused on these issues as well as on providing evidence-based information for our physicians and our patients and protecting the well-being of physicians — especially since we know that burnout and suicide rates have increased over the past 2 years. We also are trying to understand, adopt and leverage technology in medicine to better serve our communities and improve access. Interwoven in all of this is paying attention to diversity, equity and inclusion in how we create and implement programming and projects. With regards to particular clinical topics that we need to focus on, I would say emerging diseases like long COVID and monkeypox, behavioral and mental health, and women’s (persons with uteruses) health are at the top of the list.

Healio: What is AAFP doing to help physicians with regard to some of the field’s top concerns, like burnout?

Iroku-Malize: The AAFP has been proactively working toward addressing physician well-being even prior to the pandemic. We have used our Physician Health and Wellbeing Conference as a mechanism for physicians to come together and learn about strategies to address and improve burnout. In 2022, 84% of conference attendees rated the conference as excellent, and it will be offered again in the spring of 2023. The academy has hosted several webinars on topics including physician mental health and suicide prevention. Through our major journals, American Family Physician and Family Practice Management, articles have been presented on leading change to achieve physician well-being and the link between scope of practice and burnout.

The AAFP also offers several online learning opportunities that address physician wellbeing with topics that address the individual physician, physician culture and health care systems. This is part of the Physician Health First initiative, which is training and education developed, piloted and disseminated by the AAFP. In response to the needs of our future physicians, namely students and family medicine residents, we were awarded a HRSA grant to expand our wellbeing offerings to these groups.

We have also created the Leading Physician Well-Being certificate program which is a 10-month program that includes three foundational areas: physician well-being, leadership development and performance improvement. We are launching our third cohort in 2023, and I’m pleased to share that 98 physicians completed the first cohort, and 120 physicians are in our second cohort.

Finally, the AAFP has worked in conjunction with the American Board of Family Medicine on the Sustaining Women In Medicine (SWIM) project to explore factors contributing to burnout in women and investigate potential interventions for female physicians. Currently, we are pursuing funding to replicate the SWIM study for additional physician populations.

Healio: Recently, the White House’s COVID-19 Response Coordinator said that the Biden administration will stop buying vaccines, tests and treatments. What should PCPs be telling their patients to prepare for this shift?

Iroku-Malize: Preventive care is a key to ensuring we stay ahead of this shift. The non-pharmacological management of the infectious disease will still be practicing personal hand hygiene, being mindful of those who are in contact with you who may be sick, encouraging those who can wear their face masks as needed to do so, and advocating for mechanisms that create opportunities for payors to ensure our vulnerable populations have access to needed resources. This will include discussions on reimbursement, coverage, access and regulations. Our members know that the AAFP will continue to advocate for health care delivery systems to provide cost-effective, patient-centered, high-quality care to all our patients.

Healio: What are some goals you hope to achieve in this position?

Iroku-Malize: Overall, I’m focused on uniting and inspiring our members to find innovative ways to work smarter in providing the quality care our communities need while preserving their well-being. I hope to encourage patients, physicians, students and communities to be bold enough to advocate for universal access to basic health care services and for our health care systems to provide cost-effective, patient-centered, high-quality care. If we can make a dent in administrative complexity, it will be a win. I also want everyone to know that having a family physician leads to a longer life.

Healio: Is there anything else you would like to add?

Iroku-Malize: The mission of the AAFP is to strengthen family physicians and the communities we care for through representation, leadership and advocacy utilizing high standards and dynamic opportunities. I am proud to be a member.