ACOFP Blog
For Family, By Family—ACOFP Blog
As part of his May Student Governor Report, Evan Bischoff, OMS-III, interviews 2022–23 ACOFP President Bruce R. Williams, DO, FACOFP, about his family medicine journey and his goals for student leaders during the upcoming year.
On behalf of the ACOFP Board of Governors, we would also like to extend our sincere congratulations to all our osteopathic medical student graduates! Your hard work and perseverance will continue to pay dividends into residency and beyond.
As we look to our next steps in our osteopathic journey, I thought it would be fitting to introduce the current osteopathic physicians leading ACOFP. In my monthly reports, I will be interviewing a member of the ACOFP Board of Governors, and I would like to start with the new 2022–23 ACOFP president, Bruce R. Williams, DO, FACOFP!
Wilkes College (now Wilkes University), in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania (1982)
Kansas City University (KCU) College of Osteopathic Medicine in Kansas City, Missouri (1987)
I live in Kansas City, and I have been associate dean of clinical education at KCU since 2020. Prior to that, I practiced osteopathic family medicine in Eastern Jackson County for over 30 years.
Hunting, fishing, shooting, camping, genealogy, traveling, history, Batman and James Bond (I’m a real GEEK!)
If you read the upcoming issue of Osteopathic Family Physician, I tell my story there. This is a recommendation to all readers to check out ACOFP’s peer-reviewed journal!
I want to continue the work Drs. Koehler, DeLuca and Bixler—our previous presidents—who started our strategic plan. I also want to bring more awareness to the recognition and importance of family medicine as a specialty. Every person should have a family physician for preventive and continuity of care and maintenance of health. I want to see us promote improved reimbursement to family physicians so we can provide the resources our patients need. I would also like to see ACOFP promote full scope family medicine.
Furthermore, osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) is very underutilized, and our patients are not getting the benefit of the gift we have been given as osteopathic family physicians. And our practices are not getting the revenue they could receive by performing, documenting, coding and billing OMT properly.
Increased interaction with ACOFP. We need more osteopathic family physicians. How can ACOFP assist the chapters in promoting family medicine? Would they like a visit from the president or a governor? That is a possibility.
In addition, I’d like to see the chapters develop an aggressive promotion to first-year medical students for osteopathic family medicine. How can we put that thought in their heads early on?
Thank you so much, Dr. Williams. We truly appreciate all that you do for ACOFP and family medicine. We wish you success in the coming year!
ACOFP is a community of current and future family physicians that champions osteopathic principles and supports its members by providing resources such as education, networking and advocacy, while putting patients first.