AAFP National Conference 2016 Recap

This year’s American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) National Conference of Family Medicine Residents and Medical Students was held on July 28 through July 30 in Kansas City, Missouri. The conference gives medical students an opportunity to attend workshops, network, and gain insights into family medicine.


Our faculty, residents, and staff went as exhibitors to promote our residency programs. We also sponsored scholarships for medical students to attend and learn more about family medicine.

This year’s conference drew a record number of attendees with 1,210 residents and 1,349 medical students from across the nation. From the University of Minnesota, 46 medical students attended the conference. Below is a list of all U of M family medicine residency program representatives.

Duluth

Mankato third-year resident Jared Colvert, DO and program director John McCabe, MD

• Kristin Comstock, MD, second-year resident
• Charles Hackett, MD, second-year resident
• E. Tolga Hanhan, MD, first-year resident
• John Wood, MD, associate program director

Mankato

• Jared Colvert, DO, third-year resident
• John McCabe, MD, program director

Methodist

• Jesse Klingelhoets, MD, second-year resident
• Josh Scheck, MD, second-year resident
• Stephen Schwartz, MD, second-year resident



Left to right: North Memorial faculty Laura Miller, MD, second-year resident
 Lauren Williams, MD, first-year resident Nat Fondell, MD, faculty Renee Crichlow, MD,
 and third-year resident Meredith Bourne, MD

• Jeremy Springer, MD, program director

North Memorial

• Meredith Bourne, MD, third-year resident
• Reneé Crichlow, MD, faculty 
• Nat Fondell, MD, first-year resident
• Laura Miller, MD, faculty
• Lauren Williams, MD, second-year resident (MAFP-sponsored)

St. Cloud

• Dennis Peterson, MD, faculty
• 
Noah Retka, MD, third-year resident

St. John’s

St. Cloud faculty Dennis Peterson, MD, and third-year resident Noah Retka, MD

• Bobby Kagigebi, MD, third-year resident

• Kaitlyn Schoeck, MD, third-year resident

• Angela Smithson, MD, MPH, program director
• 
Jennifer Svendsen, MD, second-year resident

St. Joseph’s

• Robert Hlavacek, DO, third-year resident

• Manuel Idrogo, MD, faculty

• Michael Nasenbeny, MD, third-year resident

• Margaret Perko, MD, third-year resident

University of Minnesota Medical Center


• Andrea Larson, DO, second-year resident

• Carrie Link, MD, faculty
• Raquel Van Norman, administrator

Department Staff

• Tanner Nissly, DO, faculty advisor for the Family Medicine Interest Group (FMIG) on the Twin Cities campus and North Memorial faculty

• Laura Pham, residency programs coordinator

• Nkauj Shoua Vang, communications specialist

Social Media

The traveling Loon trophy

For the third year in a row, we held a friendly social media challenge between our eight residency programs. For the challenge, we specifically tracked Twitter usage using #aafpnc. The residency program and individual who tweeted the most using #aafpnc received prizes. 


This year’s winning team was our Methodist program, with a grand total of 359 tweets. They will receive the traveling Loon trophy (our version of the Twitter bird.) This year's individual winner was second-year Methodist resident Jesse Klingelhoets, MD, with a total of 189 tweets. He wins a $30.00 gift card to the University of Minnesota Bookstore.

Methodist program director Jeremy Springer, MD, with second-year residents Jesse Klingelhoets, MD, Josh Scheck, MD, and Steve Schwartz, MD.

Past winners:
2015: Program winner: North Memorial; Individual winner: Carrie link, MD, University of Minnesota Medical Center
2014: Program winner: North Memorial; Individual winner: Reneé Crichlow, MD, North Memorial

In addition to sponsoring a social media challenge on Twitter, we used the new Facebook Live feature to introduce our programs and encourage attendees to stop by program booths. Click here to see the videos. If you were unable to attend this year’s conference, you can view photos from our exhibit here.

We look forward to next year’s conference, which will be held on July 27 through July 29, 2017.

Medical students visiting with our program representatives