Family Medicine for America’s Health (FMAHealth. org) is a collaborative effort of 8 national family medicine organizations including the Association of Departments of Family Medicine (ADFM). FMAHealth has recommended that each sponsoring organization have a patient/public member on their board of directors. ADFM, in collaboration with FMAHealth, is conducting a 2-year pilot on the value of adding a public member to the ADFM Board of directors. The purpose of this pilot is to determine if the inclusion of a public member from outside of academic departments of family medicine will bring insights and a perspective that enhance the work of the Board in advancing the mission of ADFM. The public member will serve a 2-year term (February 2018–February 2020). ADFM will conduct an evaluation of the pilot program to inform a decision about whether to continue to include a public member position on the Board after the conclusion of the pilot phase in 2020.
The Mission of ADFM is to transform care, education, and research to promote health equity and improve the health of the nation. Among our stated values is “Compassion: We commit to keeping the patient as the central focus.” We see this pilot of including a public member perspective on our Board as closely aligned with this value and keeping the patient at the center of what we do. In referring to this position as a “public member,” we also envision the role as contributing to all of ADFM’s mission areas, which include research, education, and public service, in addition to patient care. The hypothesis to be tested is that an individual who is not from within our internal “family” of academic departments, but who appreciates our mission and is committed to the success of departments of family medicine, will bring complementary views and experiences that enhance the work of ADFM.
Even prior to FMAHealth’s suggestion to add a patient/public member to the boards of our family medicine organizations, the American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM), the North American Primary Care Research Group (NAPCRG), and the American Academy of Family Physicians Foundation (AAFPF) had public members on their boards. They reported favorable experiences from broadening board membership. In fact, NAPCRG and the ABFM have increased the number of patient/public members to 2 and 3, respectively. FMAHealth, learning from their experience, has encouraged other family medicine organizations to expand their membership to include a patient/public member.
Finding the “Right” Person
In response to the encouragement by FMAHealth to include a patient/public member, the consensus of the ADFM Executive Committee was that it would be of value to ADFM to move in this direction on a pilot basis. Recognizing the desire for a patient/public member who can understand the broad mission of our academic constituent groups, we sought to recruit a public member with experience working in organizations, health systems, or larger academic entities (Table 1).
Table 1.
Duties and Desired Qualifications for a Public Member on the ADFM Board
| Duties |
| The public member shall be a voting member of the board of directors, with a vote equal in weight to those of other board members. |
| The public member will be able to serve on any ADFM strategic committee (Healthcare Delivery Transformation, Education Transformation, Research Development, Leadership Development) or the Winter Meeting Planning Committee. |
| The public member will be allowed to vote for candidates nominated to positions on the ADFM board of directors, including officer positions. |
| The public member will sign a Conflict of Interest form. |
| The public member will participate in all meetings of the Board of Directors. |
| The public member will respond to requests from the Executive Director and Board Officers for input on business and strategic issues that arise between Board meetings, primarily in the form of reviewing periodic electronic communications and responding as requested. |
| The public member (as well as all other ADFM Board members) will participate in an interview and complete a brief questionnaire at the end of the first year term for the evaluation of the public member pilot project. |
| The public member is not eligible to be a candidate for an elected officer position of ADFM (eg, ADFM President). |
| Members of the Board of Directors are not financially compensated for service to the Board and ADFM. |
| The public member will have his/her expenses reimbursed to attend Board meetings and the ADFM annual meeting; this is in contrast to other Board members who self-fund their travel to meetings. |
| Desired qualifications |
| Advanced degree (masters or higher, or certification) |
| Work experience at an academic health center |
| Previous service on the board of directors of a non-profit organization, university, or other civic organization |
| Advocacy skills |
| Experience promoting diversity and health equity |
ADFM is very pleased to have received a number of applications from outstanding candidates. We are delighted to announce that Julie Moretz (Chief Experience Officer / Assistant Vice President, Patient- and Family-Centered Care, Center for Patients and Families, Augusta University Health System, Augusta, Georgia, https://jagwire.augusta.edu/archives/42306) will be serving in this unique pilot endeavor. We look forward to reporting the results of our evaluation of this pilot.