Women's Constituency report from the 2026 AAFP NCCL

Women's Constituency: Alisha Thomas, MD, FAAFP - Evanston

This was my first Academy meeting in any sort of leadership capacity - I was intrigued by the prospect of becoming more active within IAFP in a way that adds value back to the Academy.

I attended the ACLF/NCCL preconference session “Understanding Health Equity and Social Determinants of Health in your Clinic and Community,” which aligned with some of my interests, as a member of the IAFP's Health Equity Member Interest Group.

The Joint Opening Session was headlined by Dr. Deanna Wathington –a family physician and the immediate past president of the American Public Health Association. She spoke on “Working Together to Forge a Bold Path to Health for Our Communities.”

At the Women's Constituency gathering, we as a group generated 20+ ideas for resolutions and eventually settled on about 10 resolutions to put forth. The resolutions were wide-ranging:

·       advocating for pay parity for women physicians, and

·       billing parity for counseling on items such as contraceptive management, as well as prenatal education for newborn Hep B/ Vitamin K and erythromycin admin;

·       advocating for increased funding for sex-exclusive medical research specifically research for women,

·       research into life expectancy disparities for women physicians, and

·       increased research/education into recognition of female obesity across the life cycle;

·       opposing the creep of the corporate practice of medicine;

·       advocating for increased resident education/updated curricular guidelines regarding menopause/perimenopause;

·       advocating for access to and regulation of safe supplements/botanicals;

·       advocating for universal lead screening for pregnant patients and children; and

·       advocating for a national database to facilitate abortion/gender affirming care training for residents in restricted states as well as post residency training.

I co-authored the resolution regarding menopause/perimenopause residency curriculum guidelines. I also served as a volunteer on the Tellers Committee as the Women's Constituency representative tasked to assist with counting during the subsequent votes/elections.

The Friday keynote lunch focused on “Exploring Trust and Healthcare Policy in a Polarized Climate.” The afternoon reference committee hearings to consider resolutions from the five constituencies as assigned. Unfortunately, I had a mishap on my way to the convention center on Friday morning and ended up in the local ED with an acute ankle fracture. Therefore, regrettably I missed much of Friday!

Saturday morning the constituency members worked on resolution amendments, followed by the business session where the reference committees brought forth their reports for potential report approval or resolution extraction for debate. For any resolutions extracted, delegates could offer amendments for consideration before delegates voted to adopt or not adopt the extracted or amended resolutions. I offered testimony on two resolutions regarding the care of transgender patients, based on my personal experience and prior professional experience working in a corrections setting. I'm proud to say most of the resolutions from the Women's Constituency were adopted in their original form, or through a resolution amendment.

June Update from Dr. Thomas: The ED visit diagnosis was an unstable ankle fracture. Dr. Thomas ultimately had surgery on May 8 and returned to taking hospital call shifts with a boot and knee scooter in mid-June.