What's New at ACFP and In Health Care
President's Message—Principle Based Leadership
Machiavelli said "Never waste the opportunity offered by a crisis" ... but we ought to ensure we are consistent and fully in-line with our organizational principles!

A crisis shakes us out of complacency and forces us to challenge conventional wisdom so that we can create transformative change. When things get tough and decisions need to be made quickly, having a set of principles to guide you can allow freedom to create solutions and the structure to hold true to what the membership believes.

The Alberta College of Family Physicians is a principle based organization that prides itself in its role to strive for constant improvement and excellence. In the past several years, we have, collectively as family physicians, been challenged to provide leadership for change.

Less than two weeks until early pricing ends!
There's still time to register and save! Join us at the Alberta College of Family Physicians' 63rd Annual Scientific Assembly , March 2-4, 2018, in Banff, Alberta!

Early bird pricing is only available until February 4, 2018.

Check out pages 6-9 in the Preliminary Program for a full list of session titles or visit the ASA website .

There are still spaces available in the pre-conference 2- and 3-credit/hour opportunities including Treating Poverty , Exercise is Medicine , and the newly added Assessment of Decision Making Capacity .
Leadership for Where You Are
When physicians hear "leadership," many think it's a title for their peers who have been in the system for years and take part in provincial committees; but leadership is being redefined by physicians in all stages of their career.

Dr. Dinesh Witharana, a physician in his first five years of family practice , took some time to reflect on his leadership journey so far:

"As a medical student and resident, I had always told myself to avoid taking on additional responsibility. Medicine has a way of asking more and more of you, and it never seems to stop asking. I wanted to avoid taking on too much leadership and administration responsibilities and end up neglecting my clinical or personal obligations. However, during my first five years of practice, I became increasingly frustrated with gaps/barriers in the medical system for patients and caregivers, including health care professionals, without someone to advocate for them. As a result, I started taking on leadership positions to tear down some of those barriers, and bridge those gaps that I saw in my clinical practice."

Save the date for LeadFM—April 20-21!
It is almost time to register for LeadFM: Alberta Family Medicine Leadership Conference , April 20-21 in Calgary.

Building on the success of last year’s conference, we’ve expanded to two days of powerful keynote presentations, engaging and insightful workshop sessions, and dedicated time to network with your peers to discuss and exchange ideas that are top of mind for you right now. This unique conference is open to both physician and system leaders — it is truly leadership for where you are ! 

Motivating Patients to Move—What can you do?
Many people look at the new year as a chance to reset their behaviours by making health-oriented resolutions. A quick look at Google Trends shows marked increases in search terms like “get fit” and “lose weight” around January 1. With patients already motivated to get up and get moving, how do you encourage their continued participation in regular physical activity after the excitement of the new year (and its resolutions) has passed? 

What can you do to help them stay on both the figurative and literal track? Turns out, it may be as simple as writing a “prescription” to track their activity with a pedometer . In particular, in patients with chronic disease, the most successful interventions to increase physical activity are those that involve specific behavioural strategies and encourage self-monitoring. And using a pedometer fulfills both of these.

Providing patients with a written, goal-oriented exercise program has been previously demonstrated to increase physical activity levels. Find out what a sample "prescription" looks like here.
Alberta College of Family Physicians | www.acfp.ca | 780-488-2395