Dr. Paul Thomas at the American Academy of Family Physicians Students and Residents Conference 2021

Dr. Paul Thomas at the American Academy of Family Physicians Students and Residents Conference 2021

In 2021, I got to participate in the AAFP’s Students and Residents Conference! It was a great experience and I loved interacting with students and teaching them about Direct Primary Care. I had a great time, and I think the students learned a lot from the presentation. My session was called “Direct Primary Care: Why Doctors Are Ditching Insurance for a More Fulfilling Practice of Medicine.”

This month, I got the most wonderful email from the AAFP staff about my presentation:

Hi!

Hope you are doing well.

As you may know, each of the National Conference workshops allowed participant review via numerical scores and written comments. These surveys were available throughout the conference and for the duration of time the platform was open for archive viewing. Results have now been tallied, and your session report is attached.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out. Thanks again for your participation in National Conference.

Best,

-AAFP Staff

Okay, the email was pretty good, but what was attached was truly wonderful. Attached to the email were the reviews from students, residents, and program directors for the presentation. Here’s those reviews:

• Amazing and encouraging. I don't know what the solution is to fixing healthcare in America, but this seems very promising.

• Amazing! Dr. Paul Thomas did a great job.

• Amazing! Very informative.

• Caught last half. Always looking for the latest and greatest opportunities for my residents to explore during or after graduation. We had a few residents speaking with interested applicants for this conference, but I don't think they attended your lecture. Our program will definitely be contacting you regarding lecture or rotation in future. You have a plethora of information to share, thank you very much. As a non physician, I will share you with my friends.

• Fantastic workshop, very informative!

• Great learning about a new way to practice FM!

• Great presentation

• Great talk and I appreciated how he answered so many questions.

• That was an eye-opening session for me. Thank you!

• Very helpful indeed. Will share this to our residents.

• Very informative!

• Wonderful presentation. Loved the topic has open my mind to a new way to practice FM!

• Wow, thank you for this presentation. I am inspired and optimistic for the future of family medicine.

On top of that, the overall rating from the 27 survey responses was a 5 out of 5!

Overall, Dr. Paul Thomas got a 5 out of 5 for the Direct Primary Care presentation at the AAFP National Conference.

The comments from students and residents blew me away!

The reviews and comments from the folks who attended this session really blew me away, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to work with the AAFP and teach the future of family medicine about Direct Primary Care and alternative practice models.

Thanks for reading!

-Dr. Paul Thomas with Startup DPC, physician and founder of Plum Health DPC

Direct Primary Care Elective Rotation Curriculum

Many students and residents aspiring to become direct primary care doctors have reached out and asked for advice on how to write a direct primary care elective rotation curriculum. Writing your own elective rotation curriculum for a month with a direct primary care doctor can be transformational, and it’s a crucial step towards seeing what works in the direct primary care model. I highly encourage all students and residents to look into either writing their own direct primary care elective rotation curriculum or using a template to write their own curriculum.

When I was a third year resident, I wrote my own direct primary care elective rotation curriculum and it was quickly approved by my program director. I traveled out to Kansas and Colorado to shadow some influential direct primary care doctors and it was transformative for my journey to start and grow my own direct primary care practice. I detail that journey in my book, Startup DPC How to Start and Grow Your Direct Primary Care Practice.

Writing a Direct Primary Care Elective Rotation Curriculum: What to Include

When you write a direct primary care elective rotation curriculum, you should include required responsibilities for the elective rotation, like the amount of time you’ll spend shadowing, working with, or learning from a direct primary care doctor.

You should also include goals of the rotation, like being able to differentiate between various payment models for family medicine and to gain experiential knowledge from other practicing physicians in varying payment models.

Further you should include learning objectives, like understanding the concepts of how to write a business plan and learning how to interact with the community as a business owner. There are so many tangible skills to learn, and this is a good place to include those objectives.

Download our Direct Primary Care Elective Rotation Curriculum

If you’d like to download our direct primary care elective rotation curriculum, it can be found as a part of our Startup DPC course on writing a business plan. In my opinion, these two documents go hand in hand.