For the third year in a row, American Academy of Family Physicians recognized the Family Medicine Interest Group at KU School of Medicine-Wichita with a Program of Excellence Award.

The student group earned recognition for Excellence in Promoting Scope and Diversity of Family Medicine. KU School of Medicine-Wichita is one of 14 campuses nationwide with a family medicine interest group honored by AAFP.

Several representatives from KU School of Medicine-Wichita were in attendance to accept the award in July at the AAFP conference in Kansas City, including Jack Harrigan, FMIG president; Graham Pankratz, vice president; and Lynn Fisher, M.D., assistant professor in the Department of Family & Community Medicine and co-advisor to the group.

“It was an honor to be there to accept the award on behalf of the folks who were in leadership last year,” said Pankratz. The third-year medical student plans to go into rural family medicine, in part because of the impact those physicians have on the communities they serve.

Tessa Rohrberg, M.D., who is also an assistant professor in the Department of Family & Community Medicine and co-advisor to the FMIG, credits the award to the group’s establishment of a social justice committee, bringing in speakers to talk about diversity in family medicine, and recent initiatives that highlight the scope of family medicine.

During “Speed Dating,” medical students visit one-on-one with practitioners from all areas of family medicine, including rural family medicine, federally qualified health centers, academic medicine, administration, eating disorder treatment and others. The program follows a speed dating format, in which students can speak to each doctor for about 10 minutes.

The FMIG has also joined with the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Cabinet to create educational posters around health equity. For example, in August they chose the topic of immunization and included statistics about how rates differ among racial and ethnic groups.

“These posters are then being dispersed to different clinics around the community and on campus and some private practice clinics,” Rohrberg said. “It’s a really cool thing they’re doing.”

The FMIG hosts many other events that “plant seeds” for family medicine, both on and off campus, Harrigan said. They include Primary Care Week and Doc for a Day.

The latter is the group’s largest outreach event. During Doc for a Day, local high school students experience birthing and code blue simulations, practice suturing and CPR, and learn more about medical school and what it takes to get there.

Pankratz, a fourth-year medical student, said Doc for a Day is one of his favorite events because he wished he would have had a similar opportunity in high school.

“I wanted to mentor students in a way that would have been helpful to me,” Pankratz said.

He feels strongly that students can begin preparing for medical school before college through course selection, maintaining their GPA and learning how to study — “establishing those good habits early,” he said.

“I think it’s an incredible opportunity to plant that seed, that this is something they can do,” said Harrigan, who served as the Doc for a Day chair last year. “I like to think that every year we get a couple of students who think hard about going to medical school (because of the program) and actually wind up going to medical school.”

Both Harrigan and Pankratz agree that the Family & Community Medicine faculty is a big reason for the popularity and success of the FMIG. 

“Their advising and mentorship are how we’re able to have success at a national conference like this,” Pankratz said.

Harrigan said he was motivated to take on a leadership role because of the opportunity to work more closely with his area faculty.

“They do so much to support the Family Medicine Interest Group,” he said. “They provide guidance, financial support, and they give us so many opportunities to promote the field of family medicine to the medical students as well as engage with the community early in our careers as medical students.”

Above, left: Doc for a Day, the largest event hosted by the Family Medicine Interest Group at KU School of Medicine-Wichita, gives local high school students an opportunity to practice medical techniques alongside medical students and also learn more about medical school.