News Release
Attention News Editor: Marin
Scope, Marin IJ
Contact: Zusha, Marin Scope, Editor MIJ,
Local Family Doctor
Celebrates National Membership
Sausalito, CA — Naureen A.
Shaikh, MD, from the Bay Area, CA, has completed continuing
medical education requirements to retain membership in the
American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), the only medical
specialty organization devoted solely to primary care.
As members of the AAFP, family physicians
are required to complete 150 hours of continuing medical
education every three years. This ensures that family physicians
remain educated on the most up-to-date medical technologies,
research and techniques.
Family physicians, like other medical
specialists, complete an extensive three-year residency
program in the specialty after graduating from medical school.
As part of their residency, family physicians receive training
in six major medical areas: pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology,
internal medicine, psychiatry and neurology, surgery and
community medicine. They also receive instruction in many
other areas including geriatrics, emergency medicine, ophthalmology,
radiology, sports medicine and urology. As a result, family
physicians are the only medical specialists qualified to
provide comprehensive health care for people of all ages.
People choose family physicians because
they are trained to treat a broad range of illnesses from
coughs, ear infections, chest pain, diabetes and hypertension,
as well as to provide prenatal care and well baby exams.
In fact, 207 million office visits are made to family physicians
each year. This is 62 million more visits than to any other
medical specialty.
The AAFP is the national medical
organization representing more than 94,000 family physicians,
family practice residents and medical students nationwide.
The AAFP was instrumental in establishing the medical specialty
of family practice in 1969.
NOTE TO JOURNALISTS: For additional information about
the American Academy of Family Physicians, log on to its
Web site at http://www.aafp.org or call Barbara Kowalski at 1-800-274-2237, ext. 5204.
Founded
in 1947, the AAFP represents more than 94,000 physicians
and medical students nationwide. It is the only medical
society devoted solely to primary care.
Nearly
one in four of all office visits are made to general and
family physicians. That is 207 million office visits each
year, 62 million more than to any other medical specialty.
Today, family physicians provide the majority of care for
America's underserved and rural populations.
In the increasingly fragmented world of health care where
many medical specialties limit their practice to a particular
organ, disease, age or sex, family physicians are dedicated
to treating the whole person across the full spectrum of
ages. Family medicine's cornerstone is an ongoing, personal
patient-physician relationship focused on integrated care.
To
learn more about the American Academy of Family physicians
and about the specialty of family medicine, please visit www.aafp.org.
