Family Medicine Resources

Free Resources to Improve Diagnosis and Management of Hypertension in Pregnancy

The AAFP has partnered with numerous stakeholders to develop the Hypertension in Pregnancy Change Package. The resource, part of the CDC’s Million Hearts initiative, is designed to help outpatient clinics put effective systems in place, and presents a menu of options from which practices can select specific interventions to improve diagnosis and management of hypertension in pregnancy. Family physician Scott Hartman, MD, co-author of the change package, said in an AAFP News article that the free resource will be useful to family doctors, even if they don’t deliver babies, because about one-third of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy are diagnosed postpartum, and the change package also covers care transitions.

Toolkit for Heart Valve Disease

This toolkit for physicians and clinicians from the CDC will help educate patients on heart valve disease risk factors, symptoms, and screening processes.

Speak Out: Contact the State Medical Board

Take action to support physicians alongside the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes’ Foundation. Physicians experience a higher rate of suicide than the general population and recent surveys indicate 60% experience burnout due to systemic factors. This is exacerbated by stigma around seeking mental health care. Many state medical boards, including Colorado’s, ask invasive mental health questions on licensure applications, which deter physicians from seeking the help they may need.

Consider joining this speak out encouraging medical boards to undertake an audit of the licensure applications and change mental health-related questions.

Patient Resource: Compare Hospital Procedure Prices

Colorado has a new tool which allows employers, municipalities, consumers, advocates, policymakers, other health care payers, and state regulators to compare the costs of more than 5,000 procedures at 82 Colorado hospitals. Check it out.