The road to an FACP – Why and how do we aim for it? –

（Health and Public Policy Committee，Credential/Membership Committee joint project）

Yuhta Oyama, MD, FJSIM, FACP

Nihonkai General Hospital

Department of Internal Medicine

Division of Nephrology and Rheumatology

 On the second day of ACP Japan Chapter Annual Meeting 2018, the morning of June 3, we held a session with the above title as a joint project between HPPC and CMC. Although there are 320 FACPs and 6 MACPs as of July 1, 2017 in the ACP Japan Chapter, it was because we had the intention to have more member become FACP by listening to answers to questions “ Why did they aim for Fellow? ”, “ What kind of difference can be seen in daily work by becoming Fellow? “, and “How do they want to act in the future? “

 At the time of planning and submission, CMC was also planning a session to announce the procedure of Fellow application. Since the planning direction is the same, we decided to collaborate.

In the session, after opening remarks, we project the Convocation video which was held at ACP annual meeting (Internal Medicine). Prior to this project, we conducted a preliminary questionnaire using acp-exchange mailing list etc. Fellows and Masters were asked to answer in a questionnaire about the aim for Fellow and the change after becoming Fellow, and members were asked to answer in a questionnaire about the image of Fellow, whether they are aiming for Fellow, and whether they think that they would change themselves by becoming Fellow. So, after Convocation video presentation, we announced the results of the questionnaire and conducted a discussion based on the answer contents.

This time, Dr. Fumiaki Ueno (Governor, ACP Japan Chapter) and Dr. Kenji Maeda (Governor-Elect, ACP Japan Chapter) fortunately participated as a commentator. For that reason, clear focus was placed on this project, and a more meaningful message was conveyed to both the participants and the committee members as well (Dr. Ueno and Dr. Maeda, we thank you for taking the time to attend this session despite being busy during annual meeting). Although the motivation when respondents became Member or Fellow was various, we got impression that spiritual incentives such as pride, self-confidence, sense of responsibility, and so on, are given mental motivation to continue the occupation of a doctor by becoming Fellow.

After the discussion, there was a comment on the steps to apply for Fellow, and the session was summarized. Since the application procedure was explained in an easy-to-understand manner, for the participants, the method of acquiring Fellow became even clearer. Thank you very much for all the participants who had listened diligently.

We hope that more people aim for Fellow with this project as opportunity, but eventually, the two committees hope that number of members of ACP Japan Chapter will increase by repeating such a project.