The Call to Lifelong Learning
I am recently back from the annual Family Medicine FMX conference in Phoenix, where I had the opportunity to learn updates in the field from top experts, engage with vendors in the healthcare space, and learn about new technologies coming down the pipeline. Most importantly for me, I had the chance to network with other like-minded family medicine doctors. This was my fourth time attending this conference, and I have tried to make it a point to attend every year if I am able. I consider it not only to be an educational trip, but also a spiritual retreat of sorts, where my love and passion for the field of family medicine is reinvigorated and where my medical knowledge is refreshed, and oftentimes challenged. It is the chicken soup for my doctor’s soul, and serves as a potent reminder of my commitment to lifelong learning.
We live in what many have defined as “the Information age,” characterized by rapid development in technology, ideas, and of course, the spread and proliferation of information at an ever-growing rate. In this current era, every one of us, regardless of profession or societal status, is called upon to be a life-long learner. If you do not swim, you will surely sink. It is widely cited that medical knowledge doubles every seventy days or so, and to attempt to stay current an adept doctor must constantly be learning and questioning their craft. This is in stark contrast to much of human history, in which the rate of informational spread and change was slow and somewhat predictable. If I was born the son of a medieval blacksmith, I would learn the art and science of metalwork from my family. There may certainly be some innovations that change how I go about my craft, but for the most part, my days will be similar to those of my ancestors. Indeed, I can expect as I pass my metalworking knowledge down to the next generation that they will be well equipped for life as a medieval blacksmith with the knowledge I have shared. The value of generational knowledge remains indispensable but in our modern era it is almost never going to be enough; we all have to keep up with advancements in technology at the breakneck speed at which they develop. This is as true in medicine as it is in other fields, however given the amount of time, resources, and brainpower dedicated to advancing the field of medicine, keeping up with the advancements remains a very active and engaging process.
Suffice it to say, there is always plenty of new medical knowledge to brush up on at every year’s conference. My field of family medicine is a very broad field, we pride ourselves in being the “Swiss Army” knives of physicians, and as such the variety of topics presented by renowned experts is always daunting. There really is no way to see it all, and there are always talks offered at the same time that force you to make a hard choice, but thankfully given the quality of these talks there is not really a wrong choice. Most of the talks I went to I would consider more “bread and butter” primary care, and indeed these usually make up the majority of the talks I attend any given year: an update on diabetic kidney disease, a review on current literature related to high blood pressure and its’ management, tips for taking care of pressure sores and wounds, reviews on common heart arrhythmias such as atrial fibrillation, along with a few other talks related to topics common in primary care. The presenters are renowned for their knowledge and there is always a chance for a Q&A session at the end. While these presentations are certainly the most practically useful, there are always also some more current topics discussed at the convention, and these stand out to me as they evolve through the years. This year there was plenty of buzz, and at least two presentations related to the role of Artificial Intelligence in medicine, a topic which would certainly deserve a post all to itself and I am intent to write more on the subject. Technology is coming our way, regardless of how we feel about it. As it so happens I consider myself an early adopter of this technology and look forward to AI having an expanded role in medical care, but only ever as an aide to human thought and workflow, never as a full replacement. Following that current trend of “buzzworthy” talks, I also attended a very helpful update on the changing landscape of medications to treat obesity, knowledge which I intend to immediately put into practice once I have opened my doors. The challenge of obesity can not, should not, and will not be solved with the use of these wonder drugs alone, but they do play a very important role in managing weight and have changed the lives of countless patients, setting them on a path that they can continue through healthy prolonged lifestyle choices. These medicines were in their infancy and their impact on weight loss was not yet researched or documented when I graduated medical school in 2016. One of the liveliest presentations I attended was in regards to medical myth-busting and health literacy in the age of fake news. Reading the title of the talk alone I knew this would be a “spicy” one, and it lived up to my expectations. Despite the rabble amongst the audience members, I learned some valuable techniques for approaching patients who hold very different beliefs than I do; learning to understand more about how they reached their line of thinking, and understanding and appreciating areas where we may agree in relation to their health management, along with the art of compromising or even momentarily stepping back when we touch on topics where there is a larger gulf between us.
This was my first year going to FMX representing myself and my own clinic, and in this way was a bit different from my past conferences. I have always made an attempt to network at these events but this time did so with a bit more direction and purpose. I was able to attend the two talks hosted in the conference on direct primary care. I also had the opportunity to attend a DPC interest group, where I was able to meet other doctors across the nation who had already opened their own DPC practices, and those who were on the way. I was able to ask plenty of questions I could not find online, and the advice and experience of those I spoke with at the conference was indispensable, but what I appreciated the most was the burgeoning sense of community I felt there. Throughout most of medical training, residency, and even afterwards as we join hospital systems and large group practices, the majority of family medicine doctors work in groups and teams, there is a bit of a built-in work community. Going into independent practice can feel a bit isolating in a peculiar way for a doctor so accustomed to being a member of a team, and so I was overjoyed and enthused to have found a group of such like minded physicians. I took plenty of helpful notes and wrote down the advice offered by some of the established DPC doctors, made connections, got to meet with the authors of some of the most influential books in this burgeoning field, and also with physicians considering making the leap. Our numbers remain small but it is an enthusiastic, helpful, inviting, and fast-growing community that I am excited to join. We share a common and uniting philosophy: the traditional insurance based model of healthcare was not what was best for our patients, nor ourselves, and we are determined to build something better.
