1. National Physicians Alliance 2nd Annual Meeting

Making Medicine Ours Again: Patients and Doctors United for Health
March 10-12, 2007 in the Washington, D.C. area

• Network with inspiring physicians from around the country
• Reconnect with your passion for better health care
• Build skills to advocate for your patients’ health

As the NPA continues to grow, we are redefining the professional meeting. Join us for interactive programming focused on education and building new advocacy skills.

Featured speakers:

Paul Farmer, MD, PhD: Medical anthropologist and founding director of Partners in Health, an international charity organization
Sanjay Gupta, MD: Senior medical correspondent for the health and medical unit at CNN, and practicing neurosurgeon

Innovative sessions:

Protecting Physician Privacy: Speak out against the sale of physician prescribing data and learn what your state is doing about this threat to public health.
Resident Focus-Saving Sign-out: Return to your institution with the latest and greatest techniques to ensure patient safety and resident sanity through effective patient hand-off
Mentoring With Meaning: Connect with practicing physicians who exemplify the core values of our profession. Forums will focus on career development, research, and advocacy.

The National Physicians Association is still accepting submissions for workshops, speakers, and panels for the annual national meeting. Conference registration with be waived for all those speaking at the conference. To apply, complete the online form by November 20, 2006.

Don’t miss out on early registration discounts! For more information on programming, registration and reservations for the NPA meeting, please visit www.npalliance.org.

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2. Policy Update: Sale Of Physician Prescribing Data

The NPA Policy Committee has been hard at work preparing for the NPA's first major policy initiative regarding the sale of information about what medications physicians prescribe. Pharmacies sell this data to pharmaceutical companies which then use it to arm their drug reps. This leads to personalized detailing of physicians. The NPA opposes this practice, which increases the costs of medications and can even result in the inappropriate use of new pharmaceuticals. Find out more at http://npalliance.org/content/pages/restoring_integrity

The NPA needs your help with this initiative.  If you are interested in becoming more involved, please contact the policy committee at policy@npalliance.org.

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3. Interim Meeting Report

Over 20 leaders of the NPA gathered near Washington, DC on October 6-8 for an interim strategic planning meeting. Highlights of the meeting included outreach meetings to other organizations in Washington, DC, committee reports, and discussions on the
national convention and our policy initiatives. At the meeting, Lydia Vaias, MD, MPH, was voted president of the NPA. More details on open leadership positions will be coming soon.

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4. NPA Benefits

• 2-For-1 Special for NPA Members!! The Bellevue Literary Review is a unique literary magazine that examines human existence through the prism of health and healing, illness and disease. Edited by the acclaimed author Danielle Ofri, MD, and published by the department of medicine at New York University, the BLR offers poetry and prose of stunningly high quality. BLR writers have appeared in the Best American Essays series three years running as well as in Pushcart's Best of the Small Presses 2005. As a special gift to NPA members, the Bellevue Literary Review is now offering two three-year subscriptions for the price of one. To take advantage of this wonderful benefit, simply print out this form and mail it in. It’s an easy way to let a friend or relative understand what medicine really involves.

• The Family Physicians Inquiries Network (FPIN) is offering a discount to their new evidence-based newsletter for members of the National Physicians Alliance. FPIN is a non-profit consortium of family physicians dedicated to answering clinician's questions with the best possible evidence without the bias of industry support.

FPIN is now introducing a new way to get evidence-based information for our practices. The Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) newsletter provides concise answers to real clinical questions, utilizing the best available evidence and presenting it in an easy-to-read format. Each issue of EBP also offers the opportunity for you to earn up to three hours of CME credit. FPIN is offering a discount for NPA members – 20% off of the regular annual subscription price. They will also donate an additional 5% to NPA for every member who subscribes.

Annual subscription with 36 hours of CME only $179 after 20% discount. Annual subscription without CME only $119 after 20% discount. Resident / Student annual subscription discounted to just $79

To subscribe at the discounted rate, send your request and mailing address to ebp@fpin.org or call 573-256-2066. For more information about FPIN and the EBP newsletter, visit their website.

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5. NPA Local Action Groups

The Bay Area NPA Action Group has hosted a number of events for its members where outside experts have led discussions on topics of interest (members voted on which topic they preferred for the second event). At the first gathering, a reporter from the San Francisco Chronicle discussed her in-the-field experiences with the immigration debate and her expectations of where the debate is headed. At the second, the CEO of San Francisco Health Plan (a local not-for-profit health plan) talked about the recently-passed plan in San Francisco that would expand health care access to all SF residents; the event was cosponsored by the Committee of Interns and Residents. The Bay Area Action Group's next event will be on California ballot
initiatives in the November election. Send us an email at npa@npalliance.org with what your Local Action Group is doing!

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