California Family Physician Elected First Ever Female President of the American Academy of Family Physicians.

Health/Medical Writers

NEW ORLEANS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 2, 2003

This morning, the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) Congress of Delegates elected Mary Frank, MD of Mill Valley as AAFP President-elect. Dr. Frank will be installed at next year's AAFP Annual Scientific Assembly as the first female president of the AAFP.

Mary Frank is a member of the California Academy of Family Physicians (CAFP), has served as a board member and president of the CAFP, and most recently served on the board of directors and executive committee of the AAFP. Dr. Frank has chaired California's Commission on Legislation and Government Affairs, helped to craft AAFP legislative policy and traveled to Washington to meet with officials there.

"We are entering a new frontier for our specialty and for health care for Americans. Our progress should have one measure -- is it what we would want for our family -- our children, our colleagues, our patients?" Dr. Frank says. She also chaired the California Academy of Family Physicians' Legislative Affairs Committee and spent countless hours in Sacramento developing and testifying on bills of crucial importance to family medicine and patients.

Dr. Frank practices in Rohnert Park where she is Facility Medical Director at Primary Care Associates of Rohnert Park, and is on the staff at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital.

Created in 1948 and originally named the California Academy of General Practitioners, CAFP has nearly 7,000 members and is the largest chapter of the American Academy of Family Physicians, a national medical specialty society of family doctors. Family physicians are unique in that they are trained and qualified to work in all major medical areas, treat up to 90 percent of all conditions and care for all family members: men, women, the elderly, and children of all ages.