Committee on Advancing the Science of Family Medicine

The mission of CASFM is to promote and actively contribute to the academic discipline of primary care for the betterment of patients and their communities. It will also help to assure that the development, translation, and implementation of new knowledge rapidly becomes part of the fabric of family medicine. 

NEW! Family Practice Launches Partnership with the Committee on Advancing the Science of Family Medicine (CASFM). Read the announcement here.

Access the CASFM methods briefs unlocked here. 

Chair:
Gillian Bartlett, PhD
Gillian.bartlett@mcgill.ca

STFM Liaison:
David Mehr, MD, MS

Staff Liaison:
Kaari Van Auken
kvanauken@aafp.org

CASFM Work Groups

• Cost Analysis
• Health Information Technology (HIT)
• Practice-based Research
• Participatory Research in Primary Care
• Research Methodologies

Community Clinician Advisory Group
The mission of the Community Clinician Advisory Group (CCAG) is to bring more voices from community practice to inform (1) the functions of the NAPCRG and PBRN annual meetings and (2) add community clinician perspectives to formulating the future primary care research agenda.

History
The NAPCRG Board of Directors created the CCAG as a new board committee under the chairmanship of the NAPCRG Clinician Representative. The CCAG is composed of primary care clinicians who describe their primary role as “clinical practice” (If they also engage in teaching and research, these roles should be described as secondary). In keeping with the NAPCRG charter, CCAG membership is bi-national (US and Canadian) and broadly representative. Individual CCAG member terms are for 3 years, staggered.

Activities

• Vetting NAPCRG “Pearls” (presentations at the NAPCRG annual meeting of most interest and relevance to practitioners). View the NAPCRG Pearls.
• Disseminating “Pearls” at local, regional and state/province-wide venues
• Membership on other NAPCRG board committees at the discretion of the respective Chair
• Facilitating greater clinician-researcher interactions via formal and informal participatory activities at the NAPCRG annual meeting (including panel discussions or other dialogues)

Community primary care clinicians from all disciplines who are interested in learning more about the CCAG or applying for membership are invited to contact the NAPCRG Clinician Representative.

Communications Committee
The Communications Committee is in charge of communications for NAPCRG. This includes identifying and communicating relevant news to our own members using methods such as our newsletter and the NAPCRG website, as well as promoting NAPCRG and primary care research to those outside our organization, such as policy makers, funding agencies and community physicians, through public relation and outreach initiatives.

Chair:
Richelle Koopman, MD, MS
koopmanr@health.missouri.edu

Members:
Michele Allen
Tammy Chang, MD
Elizabeth Cope, PhD, MPH
Roland Grad
Kirk Kelly
Sudha Koppula, MD
John Lind
Kelly Nottingham, MPH, CHES

Staff Liaison:
Jill Haught
jhaught@napcrg.org

Governance Committee
It is the Governance Committee’s responsibility to develop leadership and submit nominations for open board positions to the board for approval and appointment.

Chair:
Vivian R Ramsden, RN, BSN, MS, PhD
viv.ramsden@usask.ca

Members:
Joy Melnikow, MD                                        
Andrew Bazemore, MD                               
Michael Green, MD, MPH                           
Eric Shaw, PhD                                                
Fiona Webster, PhD                              

Staff Liaison: 
Tom Vansaghi, PhD
tvansaghi@napcrg.org

International Committee

The mission of the International Committee is to provide a strategic plan and direction to extending and supporting NAPCRG’s international outreach beyond US / Canada to both resource-rich and resource-poor nations. Research is a core component of primary care clinical practice and education in all nations. All nations should prioritize and fund primary care research. Primary care researchers from all nations should have the opportunity to present new knowledge and research advances in primary care at the NAPCRG Annual Meeting and to engage in other NAPCRG activities.

Chair:
Timothy olde Hartman, MD, PhD

Members:
José-Manuel Ramirez Aranda, MD
Carlos Jaen, MD, PhD 
Oralia Bazaldua, PharmD
David Katerndahl, MD
John Beasley, MD
Joanne Reeve, MD
Vanessa Diaz, MD, MS
Grant Russell, BM BS, PhD
Lillian Gelberg, MD, MSPH
Evelyn Van Weel-Baugarten, MD PhD
Carmen Garcia-Pena, MD, PhD
Chris van Weel, MD, PhD
Jeannie Haggerty, PhD
Nicholas Zwar, MB BS Adl, FRACGP, MPH Syd, PhD

Staff Liaison: 
Kaari Van Auken
kkittell@aafp.org

Membership Committee

The Membership Committee is responsible for recruitment of new NAPCRG members, promotion of diversity among the membership, and assessment of membership needs and coordination of strategies to meet those needs. The committee conducts membership evaluations, reaches out to underrepresented constituencies, develops and maintains programs to meet members’ needs, and communicate its work to NAPCRG’s membership.

Chair:
Kim Griswold, MD, MPH
griswol@buffalo.edu

Members:
Bob Ferrer
Beth Barnet
Elizabeth Clark
Allison Cole
Lillian Gelberg
Jennifer Molokwu
Marty Player
Carmen Garcia-Pena
Daniel Wall
Maret Felzien
Mimi Tarn

Staff Liaison: 
Jessica Sand, MPH
jsand@napcrg.org

Program Committee

The program committee helps with the format of the meeting, for example changing ratios of posters to oral presentations depending on the venue and the number of submissions. We select and invite the plenary speakers, we review the  submissions where there is a high score to select distinguished and extended papers. Where the reviewers have given a low score or there is a discrepancy we review the abstracts and make decisions on those that will be accepted. Overall we are responsible for the academic side of the program and so make decisions on many aspects of the meeting.

Chair:
Mark Ebell, MD, MS
ebell@uga.edu

Vice Chair:
Hazel Tapp, PhD

Members:
Joshua Fenton
Susan Flocke
Nora Gimpel
Emily Godfrey (PaCE representative)
Debora Goldberg
Lenny Lesser
Kathryn Nicholson
Caroline Richardson
Grant Russell
Jeffrey Scherrer
Alyssa Shell
Susan Smith
Fiona Webster

Staff Liaison:
Jill Haught
jhaught@napcrg.org

Research Advocacy Committee

The Research Advocacy Committee's purpose is multifaceted as follows:

• Provide tools, training and resources for NAPCRG members to use in their own advocacy work at the local, state and national levels in the U.S. and Canada
• Disseminate primary care research advocacy messages to key federal, state/provincial public policy leaders in the U.S. and Canada 
• Identify and build strong partnerships with organizations around collaboration, sponsorship, funding and/or support for NAPCRG’s efforts
• Promote primary care research opportunities to define the direction of primary care research in the U.S. and Canada.

To learn advocacy skills, take this free course. You do not need to be a member of the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine to enroll.

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Co-Chair:
Winston Liaw, MD, MPH
winstonrliaw@gmail.com

Co-Chair:
Sabrina Wong, RN, PhD

Members:
Victoria Adewale
Sean Lucan
Julie Phillips, MD, MPH 
Jon Salsberg
Derjung Mimi Tarn
Brian Hutchison
Niharika Khanna
Tyler Barreto

Staff Liaison: 
Jill Haught
jhaught@napcrg.org