In partnership with the Progress two-day CME conference last October, the Iowa Chapter of the American College of Physicians (ACP) also hosted a series of coinciding events, both with the conference and with the University of Iowa’s Homecoming celebrations.
First, the Iowa Chapter sponsored the state finals of the ACP Clinical Vignette Competition. This year Progress organizers invited ACP to add it into the day’s events for all conference attendees for the first time. Organizers correctly assumed that attendees could learn as much from these polished and condensed case reports as from any of the other day’s presentations. The winner of that 4-way competition was Iowa’s PSTP-member Cory Wilson, MD, PhD, for his presentation on the easily misdiagnosed pleuroparenchymal fibroelastosis. Wilson will deliver that presentation one more time when he competes at the national ACP meeting in San Diego.
Later that evening, the formal chapter meeting of the Iowa ACP Chapter got underway. Outgoing chapter governor W. John Yost, MD, FACP, ran through announcements and a recap of the previous evening’s business. On the docket, as with every year, the chapter presents a couple awards to outstanding members of the chapter.
First to be recognized that evening was M. Lee Sanders, PhD, MD, FACP, FASN, clinical associate professor in the Division of Nephrology and Hypertension. Yost presented him with the 2022 Laureate Award, which is given to ACP members who demonstrate “an abiding commitment to excellence” in clinical care, education, or research. Sanders maintains a busy clinical schedule, and in addition to caring for patients, he serves as medical director of transplantation services at the Iowa City VA Health System and as co-director of the internal medicine clerkship for medical students in the Carver College of Medicine.
In his remarks, Yost called Sanders “a long-standing and loyal supporter” of ACP with a record of “distinguished service” and of upholding “the high ideals and professional standards” associated with the organization. In written remarks, Sanders reflected on his career, thanking the ACP for the honor of being added to a list of physicians he has worked with and learned from. “I am honored to receive an award shared by this caliber of medical educators.” Sanders also thanked his wife, April, “an anchor in my life,” who supported his decision to attend medical school after completing his PhD, “a decision that I have never regretted.”
Yost also presented a Laureate Award to Jon Van Der Veer, DO, MBA, FACP, a Des Moines-area physician and founder of Exemplar Care and Direct Primary Care, which employs fifty people and offers the only metro-area 24/7 urgent care clinic, in addition to a fully staffed homeless shelter clinic. Yost then announced that Joseph Szot, MD, would be recognized at the national ACP meeting with the new title of Master of the ACP, only the eleventh to achieve this rank among the Iowa Chapter’s 600 members. “He is a highly regarded teacher,” Yost said, “and has helped shape the formation of countless residents and medical students over the past twenty years.” It then fell to incoming ACP chapter governor Katie Harris, MD, FACP, to present the 2022 Excellence Award to Yost, recognizing his many years of service not just to the Iowa Chapter but to Iowa medicine in general.
Another tradition of the ACP chapter meetings was a little friendly competition among trainees from the state’s four residency programs—University of Iowa, MercyOne-Des Moines, MercyOne-North Iowa, and University of Iowa-Des Moines. Each program fielded a team of three residents to compete in Doctor’s Dilemma, a Jeopardy-style knowledge bowl of medicine-related trivia questions.
Though the lead changed hands more than a few times, in the end, our own team—Dave Dimachkie, MD; Luke Morrey, MD; and Shahana Prakash, MD;—could not hang on through the Final Question. A great showing under pressure nonetheless, Hawkeyes!
