Sharon R. Rabinovitz, M.D., was installed as the president of the Georgia Academy of Family Physicians (GAFP) during the organization’s annual meeting that took place at the Atlanta Marriott Northwest at Galleria November 10-12.
“The opportunity to serve my profession and our patients in this capacity is a great honor,” says Dr. Rabinovitz, a board-certified family physician who is the executive director and an assistant professor with the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta. “I genuinely value and welcome every perspective, so I will make a conscious effort to be accessible and responsive and listen to my fellow GAFP members.”
Dr. Rabinovitz stresses that, “I am going to do everything in my power to protect the individual physician’s right to care for their patients as they see fit, to ensure their patients have access to the care they need and deserve, and to ensure that family physicians have a strong and effective voice in the legislative and regulatory arenas.”
During her one-year term as GAFP president, Dr. Rabinovitz will focus on…
⎼ Developing and promoting health screening processes that account for social determinants to “identify the state’s most vulnerable patients to ensure they have access to resources that can change the trajectory of their lives.”
⎼ Ensure that the ‘Mental Health Parity Bill’ (H.B. 1013) that state lawmakers passed in 2022 is implemented in a way that “actually translates into increased support and access for patients who need mental health treatment.”
⎼ Continuing GAFP’s efforts to “forge a path for students from diverse backgrounds, especially those from historically marginalized communities, to get into medical school.”
⎼ Creating a “sustainable foundation of family physicians in the state to serve as preceptors.”
Dr. Rabinovitz adds that, “GAFP will also continue to be a leader in promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion across the medical profession because it will result in a stronger health care system and better outcomes.”
She also says GAFP will remain at the forefront of efforts to address key issues like physician burnout (e.g., reducing the program’s administrative burden and increasing physician payment to cover the cost associated with providing the care), expanding Medicaid in Georgia, and ensuring patients have access to mental health care, reproductive health resources and prescription medications at affordable prices.
Dr. Rabinovitz believes, “It is imperative to expand and protect Georgians’ access to contraceptive health care to improve maternal outcomes and decrease mortality.”
Having been in practice for some 30 years, Dr. Rabinovitz encourages family physicians in the state to join GAFP because it offers an array of excellent practice management resources and workshops (e.g., billing and coding), continuing medical education, timely and relevant information (e.g., alerts from the Georgia Department of Health), networking opportunities, and access to legislators and other important stakeholders at the state and local levels.
She concludes that, “The bottom line is that GAFP helps its members make better decisions, deliver better patient care, and run more efficient and successful practices.”