Michael Kennedy, MD, FAAFP

KUMC-Associate Professor and Associate Dean of Rural Health Education
Medical School: University of Kansas
Residency: University of Kansas
Fellowship: Sunflower Clinical Scholars Program, KUMC (in progress)

Dr. Kennedy was appointed the Associate Dean for Rural Health Education in the School of Medicine in 2005. He is an Associate Professor in Family Medicine. He has been at KUMC full time since 2002. Teaching is his passion and it remains his major professional interest. Clinical education and teaching effective communication in the patient-doctor relationship is the basis for much of his teaching activity. He has been involved in education at all levels of medical school, from presenting lectures to precepting students and residents in clinics and on the wards. He has also led many clinical skills and procedural development workshops and has presented on clinical and medical policy topics at local, state and national venues. He states, "I believe that a physician is the ultimate teacher." Dr. Kennedy has logged over 35,000 student contact hours in multiple teaching venues. He believes that the interaction with patients, students, colleagues and others lends many opportunities him to receive and impart new knowledge. The potential to then help others acquire information in a personal and meaningful way is one of the prime reasons for pursuing a career in academic medicine. He is currently heavily involved in the development of the new KUMC branch campus medical school in Salina, Kansas one of the first medical education programs in the United States that offers all 4 years of medical education at a distributed rural site.

He was in rural private practice for 9 years in Burlington, KS. During that time he precepted many students in his practice. He provided "full spectrum" family medical care including: emergency room care, deputy coroner for the county, ambulatory care, hospital care, vice chief of staff, and director of a local nursing home. He provided house calls, delivered several hundred babies, performed cesarean sections, assisted in general surgery and provided many office procedures. His appreciation for the challenges faced in the practice of rural medicine has lead to his energetic support of rural health issues in workforce and access to quality medical care for rural people. His prime focus is to develop policy and practice models that will allow the health care workforce team to practice in a more efficient way. Then through education and learning opportunities in rural areas teach medical students and others the skill set required to be successful in rural practice. Ultimately he hopes to help improve interest in rural family medicine as a career for medical students.

Dr. Kennedy has served in several leadership roles in the Kansas Academy of Family Physicians (KAFP), the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, the National Rural Health Association, the Rural Medical Educators Group, University of Kansas Hospital and the University of Kansas School of Medicine. This has allowed him to become involved in local, state, and national initiatives for Health Care Reform, transition to the Patient-Centered Medical Home and Rural Physician Workforce. In his role as Associate Dean for Rural Health Education at KUMC and through his involvement in physician policy and advocacy groups he has continued to educate the public and physician groups about issues facing the practice of medicine now and in the immediate future. As a result, he is a state level spokesman for Primary Care Physicians on the subjects of Rural Physician Workforce, Patient-Centered Medical Home and Health Care Reform. He recently, represented the medical home initiative at a Kansas Department of Health and Environment program to reform health care delivery and payment in Kansas. He has continued this work through the Kansas Primary Care Physicians Collaborative and their grant on the Patient Centered Medical Homes Pilot for Kansas. He was invited to participate at national level and served as a panelist at the Bipartisan Institute's Leaders' Project Policy Forum on health care reform and also served on a panel at the first Health Care Journalism Workshop focused on rural issues sponsored by the Association of Health Care Journalists. He is very interested in identifying residents and students interested in a wide spectrum of physician leadership and practice. He very much enjoys his role serving as a mentor in the Family Medicine Residency.

Leadership

• Alternate Delegate, Kansas Academy of Family Physicians, 2011
• Senior Co-Chair, Rural Medical Educators Group, National Rural Health Association, 2011
• Founding Member of the Kansas Primary Care Physicians Collaborative, 2011
• McCann Professor for Rural Health Education, of Kansas School of Medicine, 2011
• Associate Dean for Rural Health Education, University of Kansas School of Medicine, 2011
• Assistant Dean for Student Affairs, Co-Director for Murphy Academic Society, KUMC SOM, 2011
• Trustee, Kansas Academy of Family Physicians Foundation, 2011
• Steering Committee member and Past Chair of the Workgroup on Services and Operations for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment on their Health Information Exchange initiative, 2010
• Past President, Kansas Academy of Family Physicians, 2007
• Past Delegate to Kansas Medical Society, 2000

Publications

• Kennedy M, Dobbie AE, Timberlake G, Klein R. Improving the Teaching and Learning of Fundoscopy Skills: The Timberlake Eye Model. In press, Education for Primary Care

Presentations

• "Improving Residents' Fundoscopy Skills - Use of the "Eye-Pod" Model", Society of Teachers of Family Medicine Annual Meeting, New Orleans, May 2005.
• Welcoming lecture to the incoming medical student class, August, 2005
• "Bridging the psyche and soma: Disorders not easily diagnosed and obviously treated" (group facilitator) and the group activity is titled "Family Practice and Psychology: Pondering the relationship among immune system, disease, chronic pain and mind".
• "The Health Effects of Secondhand Tobacco Smoke", Conference on Indoor Air Quality (invited speaker)
• "Single Payer Health Plan", KS state chapter meeting of AMSA
• Invited speaker at the AAFP: National Conference of Family Medicine Residents and Medical Students; gave two 3-hour workshops: "Basic Suturing Techniques" and "Advanced Suturing Techniques"