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Your source for news and events impacting the field of osteopathic medical education

Graduate Medical Education and the "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act"

JUNE 17, 2010. As part of our ongoing efforts to inform you of the provisions included in the "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act" (Public Law 111-148), this week we are providing information on provisions included in the law impacting graduate medical education.

Federation of State Medical Boards Names Humayun J. Chaudhry, D.O., President and CEO
September, 2009

DALLAS – The Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) announced today that Humayun J. Chaudhry, D.O., M.S., FACP, FACOI, has been named the organization’s new President and Chief Executive Officer. The FSMB is a national not-for-profit organization representing the 70 state medical boards of the United States. Dr. Chaudhry will assume leadership of the FSMB in October.

“We are very fortunate to have someone of Dr. Chaudhry’s exceptional talents, experience and passion for public protection to lead our organization,” said Martin Crane, M.D., Chair of the FSMB Board of Directors. “He brings an outstanding combination of leadership, health policy and administrative skills to the FSMB as we move forward in supporting state medical boards in fulfilling their mission of public protection.”

Dr. Chaudhry, 43, currently is Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer of the Suffolk County, N.Y., Department of Health Services, the ninth largest health department in the United States, serving more than 1.5 million residents in an area encompassing 912 square miles. He also is a Clinical Associate Professor of Preventive Medicine at Stony Brook University School of Medicine and an Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine of New York Institute of Technology.

Health Commissioner

As Suffolk County’s Health Commissioner since 2007, Dr. Chaudhry directs a broad array of services providing high-quality, accessible health care to the county’s residents. Overseeing 1,500 employees and a budget of $400 million, Dr. Chaudhry directs the county’s patient care services, environmental quality, preventive medicine, public health, children with special needs programs, emergency medical services, community mental hygiene, the medical examiners office, an office of minority health, and a 264-bed skilled nursing facility. The Division of Patient Care Services includes 10 community health centers, with seven of the health centers managed in partnership with area hospitals, including Stony Brook University Medical Center, the county’s only Level 1 Trauma Center.

During his tenure as Commissioner, Dr. Chaudhry created a new Division of Preventive Medicine to raise public awareness of preventable diseases and promote healthier lifestyles. When the Influenza A virus subtype H1N1 flu pandemic broke out in Suffolk County in April 2009, Dr. Chaudhry was praised for taking a proactive public health approach to the new virus, closing schools as needed and providing hundreds of local, state and federal health officials with daily public health guidance via advanced communication technologies such as Blackberry and Twitter. New York’s Newsday commended Dr. Chaudhry for “intently but calmly... (steering) the public on a better middle course between apathy and alarm.”

Medical Educator

Dr. Chaudhry currently is a Clinical Associate Professor of Preventive Medicine at Stony Brook University School of Medicine and an Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine of New York Institute of Technology (NYIT). From 2001 to 2007, he served as the full-time Chairman of the Department of Medicine at NYIT, where he also served from 2003-2005 as Assistant Dean for Pre-Clinical Education, supervising all undergraduate medical education delivered to first and second year medical students, and from 2005-2007 as the Assistant Dean for Health Policy. Additionally, Dr. Chaudhry served as Director of Medical Education at Long Beach Medical Center, a 202-bed community teaching hospital in Long Beach, N.Y., from 1996 to 2001 after his medical residency.

From 1999 to 2007, Dr. Chaudhry served in the U.S. Air Force Reserves as a physician and medical educator, rising to the rank of Major and serving as a Flight Surgeon with the 732nd Airlift Squadron and as the Medical Operations Flight Commander for the 514th Aeromedical Staging Squadron of the 514th Air Mobility Wing.

Dr. Chaudhry is the principal author of Fundamentals of Clinical Medicine (4th edition, published in 2004), a textbook designed primarily for medical students. He has led, or participated in, clinical research in several areas of public health, preventive medicine, medical education, and infectious diseases, including studies on ways to improve vaccine utilization in acute care settings, the development of a multimedia online orientation for the fourth-year medicine clerkship, a comprehensive review of drug-induced aseptic meningitis, a review of streptococcal paratracheal abscesses, and a consensus statement on abdominal girth and cardiometabolic risk.

Health Policy Leader

Dr. Chaudhry has been active in helping craft effective health policy on the state and national level for many years. He has served as the principal author of resolutions adopted by the American Medical Association, the Medical Society of the State of New York, the New York State Chapter of the American Society of Internal Medicine and the New York Chapter of the American College of Physicians. Policy issues addressed by Dr. Chaudhry include the promotion of warning labels on herbal supplements, support for state funding of cancer prevalence mapping in New York, physician education about prevailing screening guidelines, medical resident duty hours and supervision, managed care principles and practices, physician workforce predictions, and the training of physicians in women’s health.

As Chair of the Health and Public Policy Committee of the New York Chapter of the American College of Physicians, a state chapter with 12,000 members, he served in 2006 as the lead author of a white paper on the future of primary care medicine in New York state. Citing a need to promote careers in primary care medicine, the report found that in 45 of the 62 counties in New York, primary care physicians represented less than 50 percent of the physician population and, in a ratio similar to that found in developing countries, seven counties had more than 2,000 patients per single primary care provider.

Dr. Chaudhry is the 2008-2009 President of the American College of Osteopathic Internists and served as the 2007-2009 President of the Association of Osteopathic Directors and Medical Educators. He is the recipient of a Laureate Award from the American College of Physicians and has been inducted into the American Osteopathic Association’s Mentor Hall of Fame.

Education and Board Certification

Dr. Chaudhry received a Bachelor’s degree in Biology and a Master’s degree in Anatomy from New York University, and a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine degree from the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine of New York Institute of Technology in 1991. He completed an osteopathic rotating internship at St. Barnabas Hospital in New York City and a three-year residency in Internal Medicine at Winthrop University Hospital in Mineola, N.Y., where he served an additional year as Chief Medical Resident. In 2001, Dr. Chaudhry received a master’s degree in Health Care Management from the Harvard School of Public Health. He is a diplomate in Internal Medicine, American Osteopathic Board of Internal Medicine, a diplomate of the National Board of Osteopathic Medical Examiners, and he was a diplomate in Internal Medicine, American Board of Internal Medicine from 1996-2006.

Senators Bill Nelson (D-FL), Harry Reid (D-NV) and Charles Schumer (D-NY) along with Representatives Joe Crowley (D-NY), Kendrick Meek (D-FL), Cathy Castor (D-FL), and Eliot Engel (D-NY) have introduced the "Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act" (S. 973/H.R. 2251). This legislation would increase the nation's physician training capacity by 15% over the next three years, establish new residency programs in primary care and general surgery, and promote training opportunities in non-hospital settings.

We need your help to advance this legislation. Email your Members of Congress now and ask them to support the "Resident Shortage Reduction Act" (S. 973/H.R. 2251).