The good news came this week - the Mississippi Delta Family Medicine Residency Program will open in July 2020 in Greenville.

The Mississippi Medical Education and Research Consortium's application for the new program was recently approved by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, and it will bring 24 new total residents - 8 per year. The program will be housed at the old King's Daughters Hospital in Greenville, now called Delta Regional Medical Center West Campus. More on the story here.

Next week, MAFP will highlight some of the projects supported by the MAFP Foundation to encourage donors to give.

Have a Heart for Family Medicine Giving Week will be Feb. 10-14.  Many MAFP members don't realize their donations benefit a dozen different programs for residents and students who are interested in Family Medicine. 

Your donation allows us to support the following programs:

• Tar Wars
• AAFP National Conference for Family Medicine Residents and Students
• David G. Hall, MD, Memorial Scholarship for High School Students
• AAFP Family Medicine Student Externship Program
• MS Rural Physicians Scholarship Program
• UMMC Family Medicine Interest Group and WCUCOM Family Medicine Interest Group
• Spring Fling Conference for Students and Residents

All donors who give at certain levels will be recognized on MAFP's social media channels next week. $50-150 - White Heart Level, $151-300 - Silver Heart Level, $300-500 - Pink Heart Level, $501 and up - Red Heart Level. If you have a certain program you'd like to donate to, please let us know in the 'notes' section when you donate. 

You can now pay through Paypal. Click here to give. All gifts are appreciated!

MAFP recognizes and thanks a group of dedicated members who serve on the Legislative Committee, taking hours out of their busy weeks to serve the Academy.

Members of the volunteer Legislative Committee have a phone call each Friday at 7 am during the Mississippi legislative session. MAFP lobbyist Ashley Thompson reviews bills affecting health care and discusses the potential effects of each one to get physician input. Just this morning, this committee reviewed 32 total bills, and they've gone through 67 bills in the past 3 weeks.   Some of these bills will be discussed at Capitol Day next week. Get more information on Capitol Day or sign up to attend.

The Legislative Committee members are:

• Dr. Katie Patterson (chair), Indianola
• Dr. Jennifer Gholson, Summit
• Dr. Bill Grantham (MAFP President), Clinton
• Dr. James Griffin, New Augusta
• Dr. Luke Lampton, Magnolia
• Dr. Carlos Latorre, Vicksburg
• Huong Nguyen (student member), D'Iberville
• Dr. Paul Pavlov, Ocean Springs
• Dr. Brad Suggs, Brandon
• Dr. David Wheat, Clinton
• Dr. Michael Yeung-Lai-Wah (resident member), Jackson

MAFP has named five delegates to the AAFP National Conference of Constituency Leaders, to be held April 22-24 in Kansas City, MO. At the meeting, each of the physicians will caucus with an underrepresented part of AAFP's membership in order to help decide the direction of AAFP policy. 

The delegates will participate in a 3-day conference in Kansas City. In addition to the caucus activities, they will hear speakers and participate in workshops on leadership, conflict management, stress and more. The delegates are:

MAFP has just released the room reservation forms for the MAFP Annual Meeting, and reservations can be made now. The Annual Meeting is scheduled for July 18-22, 2020 at the Baytowne Conference Center in Sandestin, FL. 

Click on the link below to see the MAFP room rates on different types of rooms. Just use the code on the form to reserve your room by phone, or use a credit card and reserve by fax.

• Physician Room Form

Only 107 members still need to pay their dues to renew for 2020. That means more than 81% of MAFP active members have already paid. We're working on sending reminders to the other 19% to encourage them to renew.

TAKE THE TIME NOW to either  pay online or call AAFP at 1-800-274-2237 to pay by phone today.