Led by Josh Carpenter, MD, and Noman Shahid, MD

Complete your ABFM Knowledge Self-Assessment (KSA) in a collaborative, classroom style setting alongside your peers. No advance preparation is required. Participants will review all questions as a group, with expert faculty guiding the discussion and providing clinical insights throughout the session.

Questions are answered through audience polling, and participants work together with faculty to determine the best answers. Upon completion, participants receive 10 ABFM certification points and 8 live CME credits.

Registration for the workshop does not include any applicable ABFM fees.

Join us for a live, in-person, interactive, small-group discussion tackling real-world challenges in anticoagulation management for atrial fibrillation and venous thromboembolism. This unbranded, non-promotional session is designed for open, peer-to-peer dialogue. These are interactive, practical, case-based discussions led by experienced medical professionals.

Led by Christina Wells, MD, MPH, MBA, FAAFP, DipABLM

Complete your ABFM Knowledge Self-Assessment (KSA) in a collaborative, classroom style setting alongside your peers. No advance preparation is required. Participants will review all questions as a group, with expert faculty guiding the discussion and providing clinical insights throughout the session.

Questions are answered through audience polling, and participants work together with faculty to determine the best answers. Upon completion, participants receive 10 ABFM certification points and 8 live CME credits.

Registration for the workshop does not include any applicable ABFM fees.

1:00 PM | Welcome; Presented by Nikhil Vatti, MD, CAQSM

1:00 PM | Beyond "Where Does It Hurt?": Getting More from the MSK Physical Exam; Presented by Jacob Luther, MD, MPH

This session will provide a systematic approach to the musculoskeletal physical exam that family physicians can take back to their clinics. Using a regional approach to the knee, shoulder, hip, and spine examinations, the lecture emphasizes how to perform each test, what a positive finding means, and how to combine different tests to arrive at a differential diagnosis. It will also address common examination technique errors and the specific exam findings that should warrant prompt imaging or referral.

Learning Objectives: (1) Demonstrate the correct technique for the knee, shoulder, hip, and spine examination maneuvers commonly used in the primary care clinic. (2) Interpret what a positive or negative examination finding means and cluster specific maneuvers to create a differential diagnosis. (3) Determine which examination findings should warrant further imaging or referral to a sports medicine or orthopedic physician.

2:00 PM | Common Upper Extremity Splinting Hands-on Workshop; Presented by Deepak Patel, MD, FAAFP, FACSM, CIC

This session will include brief didactics on indications, limitations and relevant concepts for splinting. This will be followed by hands on splinting practice with presenter supervision.

Learning Objectives: (1) Select indications for upper extremity splinting. (2) Determine type of splint and supplies needed for common upper extremity splinting. (3) Demonstrate application of common upper extremity splints.

3:15 PM | Feeling for the Target: Mastering Landmark-guided Musculoskeletal Injections in Primary Care; Presented by Snigdha Kalidindi, MD, CAQSM

This session helps family physicians confidently perform common landmark-guided musculoskeletal injections; using palpation and surface anatomy, the approach most readily available in the office. It covers patient and target selection, injectate and dosing, and the periprocedural essentials needed to integrate these procedures safely into routine practice.

Learning Objectives: (1) Select appropriate patients and anatomical targets for landmark-guided musculoskeletal injections in primary care. (2) Apply reproducible surface-anatomy landmarks, patient positioning, needle approaches, and evidence-informed injectate and dosing principles for common primary care procedures. (3) Implement a safe periprocedural and follow-up plan that incorporates informed consent, aseptic technique, contraindication screening, complication recognition, and decisions regarding repeat injections and alternative treatments.

3:45 PM | Medical Taping Types and Their Role in the Flow of Medical Care; Presented by Louis A. Bustos, MSEd, LAT, ATC

The athletic training profession is often misunderstood and underutilized as a valuable component of medical intervention and rehabilitation. One reason may be the profession’s title itself. The term athletic training has become something of a misnomer, as Certified Athletic Trainers (ATCs) spend relatively little time “training” athletes in the traditional sense. Instead, they serve as healthcare professionals who provide comprehensive patient care, including injury prevention, clinical assessment, emergency response, therapeutic intervention, rehabilitation, and return-to-activity planning.

Medical taping is a foundational clinical skill within athletic training practice. Beyond its common association with sports participation, taping plays a critical role in wound management, medical device fixation, joint stabilization, edema control, and patient safety. As a versatile therapeutic intervention, medical taping supports patients across the entire continuum of care, from the management of acute injuries to the treatment and long-term rehabilitation of chronic conditions.

Learning Objectives: (1) Identify Types of Medical Tape and Their Uses: Recognize common medical tapes and their appropriate clinical uses. (2) Describe the Role of Medical Tape in Patient Care: Explain how medical tape supports assessment, treatment, wound care, and device securement across healthcare settings. (3) Explain the Importance of Proper Taping: Describe how proper tape selection and application improve patient comfort, protect skin, support infection prevention, and promote efficient care. (4) Apply Best Practices for Medical Tape Use: Select, apply, and remove medical tape safely based on patient needs, and recognize when reassessment or alternative securement is needed.

4:15 PM | Maximizing the Benefits of Physical Therapy; Presented by Ami P. Hampole, DO

We physicians often prescribe physical therapy with little understanding about what it can offer. We often share minimal direction and communication in our physical therapy orders. Without full physician input, this often leads to a one-sided reliance on therapist training/experience-levels to treat patients, which can minimize the potential benefits of physical therapy for various patient conditions. This talk will help offer ideas to physicians so they can prescribe physical therapy from a more collaborative mindset.

Learning Objectives: (1) To understand what physical therapists can and cannot offer for patients. (2) To share ideas on how to better guide physical therapists from a physician standpoint for various types of musculoskeletal and neuromuscular conditions. (3) To understand best practice components of a detailed physical therapy order. (4) To encourage and share ideas for ongoing collaboration & communication with physical therapists.

1:00 PM | Welcome & Orientation

1:15 PM | Contract Negotiations 101: Build the Career, Not Just the Deal; Presented by Mghnon I. Martin, JD

An employment contract is more than a salary and start date. It establishes rules that can affect how a physician works, what they can do outside the job, how terms may change, and how they can ultimately leave. Using real-world physician examples and negotiation lessons drawn from her work in healthcare, litigation, entertainment, and intellectual property, this interactive session with Attorney Mghnon Martin will help new physicians identify their priorities, recognize hidden contractual risk, and negotiate an agreement that fits both the job they are taking and the career they are building.

Learning Objectives: (1) Develop a three-priority negotiation plan before responding to an employment offer, distinguishing must-have terms from issues that can be traded or compromised. (2) Analyze sample physician contract provisions to identify at least three sources of ambiguity or risk involving workload, employer discretion, outside professional activities, restrictive covenants, repayment obligations, or termination. (3) Formulate a professional response to a “standard contract” position by proposing targeted questions, revisions, or trade-offs aligned with the physician's personal and professional goals.

2:15 PM | From Surviving to Thriving: Efficiency, In-Basket Sanity & Boundaries in Early Practice; Presented by Santina Wheat, MD, MPH, FAAFP

Learning Objectives: (1) Analyze the 2:1 administrative tax and drivers of cognitive fatigue. (2) Implement high-efficiency clinic workflows: upfront agenda setting, micro-resets, and in-basket batching. (3) Construct sustainable personal and professional boundaries using the "Positive No" and home recovery rituals.

3:15 PM | Financial Planning for New Physicians; Presented by Mustafa Alavi, MD, and Eric Sullivan, MD

In this presentation, we will review the essentials of family planning for new physicians and trainees. Key topics include setting financial goals, where to save your money, and how to think about student debt repayment, among others. At the end of the presentation, attendees will feel more confident in how to get started with planning their financial future.

Learning Objectives: (1) Develop an overall plan for managing finances regardless of income. (2) Examine various savings options from retirement, IRAs, stocks, and more. (3) Strategize options for student loan debt repayment, including Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF). (4) Identify at least three discrete steps one can take for financial security as a physician.

4:15 PM | Compensation Models Explained; Presented by Asim Jaffer, MD

Learning Objectives: (1) Understand key compensation structures commonly used in family medicine employment contracts, including salary-based, productivity-based, and hybrid models. (2) Analyze the relationship between compensation models and benefits packages, identifying how various incentives (e.g., bonuses, CME funds, loan repayment, or call pay) influence overall value. (3) Explore negotiation strategies to align compensation and benefits with personal and professional goals, ensuring fair and transparent agreements. (4) Evaluate real-world examples of physician contracts to recognize potential pitfalls and opportunities when assessing total compensation and career fit.

Closing the Menopause Care Gap: Confident, Evidence-Based Perimenopause and Menopause Management in Primary Care; Presented by Naomi Parrella, MD, FAAFP, FOMA, Dipl. ABOM

Menopause care is having a genuine inflection point: the FDA revised hormone-therapy labeling in late 2025, new non-hormonal options have reached the market, and Illinois is folding perimenopause and menopause into continuing education. This session pulls that fast-moving landscape into one practical, guideline-anchored hour for family physicians, covering recognition and diagnosis, current hormonal and non-hormonal options, bone and metabolic health, and the communication habits that help every clinician hear midlife women more fully. The goal is a shared, up-to-date reference we can all use on Monday morning, and to meet Illinois' perimenopause and menopause education expectations, including the provider-awareness elements that address bias in the clinical encounter.

Learning Objectives: (1) Recognize and diagnose perimenopause and menopause clinically across the reproductive-aging spectrum, distinguishing vasomotor, genitourinary, sleep, mood, cognitive, and musculoskeletal presentations from common mimics, without over-reliance on unnecessary lab testing. (2) Select evidence-based management using current hormonal and non-hormonal options, including the 2025 FDA hormone-therapy labeling changes and newly approved therapies, applying shared decision-making, timing/"window" considerations, and individualized risk assessment consistent with Menopause Society guidance. (3) Integrate long-term risk reduction into the menopause visit, including bone health and osteoporosis screening and prevention alongside the cardiometabolic and body-composition changes of the transition. (4) Apply communication strategies that reduce bias and dismissal in the care of midlife women, accounting for cultural variation in how menopause is experienced and expressed and describe how this satisfies the Illinois implicit-bias continuing-education requirement.

Brain Trust 3.0: Using the 4Cs to Accelerate Early Interventions in Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias; Presented by Raj C. Shah, MD

Advances in blood-based biomarkers, lifestyle and medical interventions to delay cognitive decline, and approved therapeutics in the early stages of dementia due to Alzheimer's disease are rapidly altering the landscape for the prevention, diagnosis, and management of dementia. In order to prevent delays in the application of early interventions, family physicians will play a larger role in the care of people at risk or living with dementia. In this continuation of the Brain Trust webinars, we will explore how to put the early interventions into practice through the lens of the 4Cs framework of primary care.

Learning Objectives: (1) Name one recent advance in Alzhiemer's Disease and Related Dementia that is changing the tools available to family physicians. (2) Evaluate the pros and cons of particular guidance for primary care physicians to engage their patients living with or at risk for dementia uisng the 4Cs framework.

Cultural Competency for Health Care Providers; Presented by Ronald Rembert Jr., MD, FAAFP

Why is cultural competency important? The 2002 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Healthcare, brought into stark focus the issues of inequities based on minority status in health care services. The IOM report concluded that, “Bias, stereotyping, prejudice, and clinical uncertainty on the part of healthcare providers may contribute to racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare.”

Learning Objectives: (1) What is cultural competency? Define cultural competency and the cognitive, affective, and behavioral skills it comprises. (2) Why is cultural competency necessary? Understand how bias and cultural misunderstanding contribute to health disparities. (3) How can we as health care providers become more culturally competent? Understand how bias and cultural misunderstanding contribute to health disparities.

Presented by Kisha Davis, MD, MPH, FAAFP

Please visit our page about Dr. Davis, the keynote address, and the AAFP update by clicking here.