President's Message

Everywhere you go, artificial intelligence is being touted as the next great advancement to transform life and medicine as we know it. Certainly, it has its place in helping to streamline our work, increase diagnostic accuracy and to decrease documentation burden and thereby the downstream effect of clinician burn out that is linked to that. However, it will never replace the human connection and the role that we as family medicine physicians play in the exam room and in the lives of our patients and communities. That human contact, personalized touch and relationship-based care that we bring to the table cannot be matched and cannot be replicated by machine or technology. When it comes down to it, patients will ultimately desire a real human, who knows them and has cared for them over time, to lead and direct their medical care.

In the past few years, sadly there has been growing mistrust of the medical profession and of physicians in general. With the advent and growth of social media, the opinions of influencers, celebrities and politicians, are oftentimes elevated above scientific, research-backed and evidence-based medical practice. Vaccine hesitancy and the resultant re-emergence of once eliminated and deadly diseases such as measles, is a prime example of the consequences that our nation and the world are paying for this. Furthermore, it is getting even harder to parse out fact from fiction, as the complex algorithms that technology, social media and news platforms use often only serve to reinforce our own biases as they perpetually display material that is most congruent with our own viewpoints rather than giving a fair and neutral stance that takes into account the actual facts and the whole picture from every angle. We as family physicians play a critical role on the front line to combat this skepticism and deception, serving as a voice of reason and truth to help to educate and embolden our patients and communities on important matters related to their health and wellbeing. Our longitudinal, holistic and long-term focus of care combined with our large breadth of medical knowledge, focus on public health and strong community involvement as family physicians makes us the ideal people to foster trust and understanding with our patients and to truly move the needle in the right direction.

I don’t know about you, but every time I turn on the TV or look anything up on the internet, I am bombarded by advertisements relating to health and medicine. I think it is overwhelming, and I am a trained medical professional—imagine how others who do not have this same background feel about this constant deluge of “medical” advertising and propaganda! It is hard to know what to believe, with much of what we see based not in evidence and focused on patient safety but rather monetary profit and a play on people’s emotions and desperation. Advertisements for supplements promising longer and fuller hair, a more youthful appearance with less wrinkles and a smoother complexion, better sleep, improved memory (or even complete reversal of dementia) and enhanced hormone levels or sexual performance, all promising a quick fix but with very little indication that they actually work, contain what they are advertised to and are safe to use.

Recently I saw a commercial for a “medical emergency kit” that you can purchase over-the-counter that claims to contain several prescription-grade antibiotics including Augmentin, azithromycin, doxycycline, metronidazole, Keflex, Ciprofloxacin in addition to oral fluconazole for yeast infections, ondansetron for nausea and ivermectin for treatment of parasites that are supposedly given to adult patients on-demand but with “oversight” from a medical provider. It contains a guidebook for patient self-treatment of future medical ailments with these substances and also comes with the option of reoccurring orders and future replenishment for up to 1-2 years at an additional cost. Talk about patient safety risk and poor antimicrobial stewardship practices!  Commercials for compounded and off-label GLP-1 agonist medications are another paramount example of this. As these are not regulated and frequently not overseen by a physician. They may be purchased by individuals whose risk of taking these outweigh the benefits. People who never would have been prescribed these had their personal physician been guiding their care. A physician who has taken into account their medical history, current diagnoses and other medications that would otherwise make them ineligible.

These kits often contain unknown ingredients, at variable dosages and with possible contaminants and with unverified efficacy and real concerns for the safety of these products. The predatory nature of this prescribing really unnerves me. So does the sheer volume of patients that I am seeing purchasing them; often on the internet or from unregulated compounding pharmacies. These patients may have a real medical need for them but cannot otherwise afford the high cost of these medications if they go through the appropriate avenue of getting these traditionally with a prescription from their physician and filled at a verified and safe pharmacy. We certainly have a long way to go in this country to ensure fair access and equity to necessary medical treatments as well as improvements in the social determinants of health that often are the underlying foundation and true driver of the quality of the health of our patients and communities.

Everyone is drawn to the promise of a quick fix, but as family physicians we know that nothing sustainable usually comes so expeditiously. The best ways to promote good health often times are not prescriptions for medications, but instead recommendations for and a long term commitment toward healthier lifestyle habits including improved diet with limiting consumption of processed and high fat foods, starches, refined carbohydrates and sugars and emphasizing whole unprocessed foods including fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains and plant-based proteins; limiting or eliminating alcoholic beverages and other illicit substances; incorporating more physical activity into our daily lives and reducing the amount of time that we are remaining sedentary; limiting screen time and technology use; prioritizing sleep, stress reduction and mental health and getting back to the basic and universal need for human social connection and building relationships and time spent with other people that we care about and provide us good and mutual support. As family physicians, we know that prevention is key, and we are the best suited of all health care professionals to emphasize and highlight, educate and role model the importance of this to our patients and the communities in which we serve.

And speaking about the need for human connection, this applies not only to our patients but also to us as family medicine physicians. We have a real need for connection and networking with each other to help to maintain and promote our own personal and professional satisfaction and wellbeing, and what better way to do that than to attend an upcoming in-person CME event with colleagues. WAFP will be co-sponsoring alongside the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) the 56th annual ‘Winter Refresher Course,’ March 12-13 at the Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee. There is still time for you to register to attend this exciting and meaningful event if you are interested. More information is available on the conference webpage:

2026 WAFP & MCW Winter Refresher Course

On Friday March 13, at the Winter Refresher Course, WAFP will be holding our Annual Business Meeting and luncheon from 11:45am-1:15pm. This Annual Business Meeting is free and open to all WAFP, even if you are not registered to attend the full CME conference. We will discuss in detail more about the positive impact and work of the WAFP over the past year and our goals for 2026 and beyond, install new board members and leaders including our new WAFP President Zach Baeseman, MD, MPH, FAAFP and honor this year’s award winners for Family Medicine Educator of the Year, Family Physician of the Year and the WAFP Lifetime achievement award. To register for the full conference, use the link above. If you’re coming for just the Annual Business Meeting luncheon, RSVP here. We look forward to hopefully seeing you all there.

I want to thank you all again for the amazing opportunity to serve as a leader in the WAFP. I know that Dr. Baeseman and the rest of WAFP’s leaders will do an excellent job in continuing to move the needle forward for Family Medicine in our state.