And we’re back! After two years of meeting virtually, chapter delegates to the AAFP Congress could finally meet in person. This year’s congress was in Washington, D.C., a fitting location for our own family medicine legislative body.

Your 2022 Delegates and Alternates are Jordan Roberts, MD, Thea Sakata, MD, Kirsten Stoesser, MD, FAAFP, and David Cope, MD, FAAFP. This group of dedicated and studious physicians did a fantastic job representing Utah family physicians at this year’s COD. Each delegate and alternate blogged about their experiences at congress. (https://utahafp.org/aafp-congress-of-delegates-updates-from-your-utah-representatives)

At each Congress of Delegates, resolutions are presented by each state chapter, debated during reference committees, and voted on during general session meetings. Delegates also vote to elect the new leadership of AAFP. The Utah delegation joined representatives from every state chapter, representatives from Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the U.S. Uniformed Services.

As in previous years, after resolutions were submitted, UAFP held a member call to debate and determine whether the Utah delegation would support or oppose each resolution – weighing the implications very carefully before making their decisions. This year, UAFP proposed three resolutions and two resolutions extracted from the 2021 COD for additional discussion.

The busy week started with a Town Hall Meeting led by AAFP president Dr. Sterling Ransone and included Dr. Ada Stewart, prior president and current Board Chair, as well as members of the Board of Directors of the AAFP. The AAFP Board of Directors reiterated that AAFP is unequivocally opposed to any legislation that interferes with the physician-patient relationship. In the afternoon, western states’ delegates gathered to present each state’s new resolution proposals and to garner regional support.

As this year marks the 75th anniversary of the academy, the Speaker took the opportunity to read some items from previous congress sessions where the issues sounded very similar to those we are still working on and mentioned that we continue to move forward as well as we can.

There were several highlights from this year’s congress:

• Our delegation played a part in overturning the recommendation not to adopt a resolution that would reinstate the requirement for live Continuing Medical Education (CME) for membership cycle renewal. Smaller chapters, like ours, rely on live CME events as a source of funding.
• Due to the pandemic, much of the business of the 2021 Congress was carried forward into this year, including Utah’s resolution to have the AAFP advocate for abolishing the slavery exemption clause in the 13th amendment, which passed successfully.
• We joined with the New York delegation to propose a resolution that requires AAFP to protect a patient seeking medical care in other states that may not be available in their home state while also advocating for the protection of both the physician counseling the patient in the home state as well as the physician assuming care for the patient outside of the patient’s state of residence. The resolution passed with strong support
• New AAFP leadership was elected, and we are excited to welcome Dr. Tochi Iroku-Malize, MD, MPH, MBA, FAAFP, who was sworn in as the 75th president. Dr. Steven P. Furr, MD, FAAFP, was chosen as president-elect, board positions were filled, and our own Dr. Sarah Woolsey, MD, MPH, FAAFP, was named as chair of the AAFP Commission on Quality and Practice.

Delegates fulfill a critical role in shaping the policy and advocacy decisions of AAFP. Elections for delegates are held early each year. If you are interested in being a UAFP delegate, watch our weekly newsletter, The Weekly Beat, for more information.