José E. Rodríguez appointed new president for national family physician network

Elements of this announcement first appeared on the Family Physicians Inquiries Network website as a press release.

José E. Rodríguez, MD, FAAFP, a family physician in Salt Lake City and the associate vice president for Health Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion at the University of Utah, was appointed this summer President of the Family Physicians Inquiries Network (FPIN). As president, Rodríguez will work closely with the executive director and the Board of Directors to plan and execute FPIN strategies. He will also serve as an ambassador for the organization, connecting with other Family Medicine organizations, developing Board liaisons, and participating in other organizations’ board committees as appropriate.

Founded in 1998, FPIN is a nonprofit membership organization offering scholarship, education, and professional development opportunities to students, residents, faculty, and fellows in primary care. FPIN provides quality education and professional development for primary care clinicians to practice evidence-based medicine and produce scholarship.

“I have always been grateful to FPIN for giving me the tools and the early wins I needed to launch a career in academic family medicine,” said Rodríguez. “With FPIN I learned how to review papers and to write them, to critically appraise the literature, and to meet writing deadlines. I have enjoyed my association with FPIN and find it to be one of the most important tools that we have in creating and sustaining a scientific base for our discipline.”

Rodríguez will serve ex officio on the Finance Committee, Membership and Education Committee and editorial groups in addition to his current roles as a Membership-at-Large Board Member and on the aBIDE committee. The aBIDE (accountability for Belonging, Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity) Committee is responsible for driving content that encourages health equity and antiracism through evidence-based medicine and ensuring a diverse community of member programs are served.

As president, Rodríguez hopes to extend FPIN’s reach into institutions and programs that serve minority and underrepresented faculty and residents. “My vision is to increase the numbers of underrepresented authors in our specialty, and FPIN is a clear first step in accomplishing that goal.” Rodríguez also said he hopes to highlight the role “FPIN has had in increasing scholarship in individual careers,” and he noted multiple research papers that have documented FPIN’s positive impact. “I know that it has changed my career, and likely the careers of thousands. The world needs to hear that story.”

José E. Rodríguez completed medical school at Weill Cornell Medical College and completed his residency in family medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He is currently a tenured professor of family and preventive medicine at the University of Utah, where he also serves as AVP for UHEDI for the academic units and the health system. He is also co-founder and co-director of the STFM Leadership through Scholarship Fellowship which is designed to teach early career family medicine faculty writing skills to advance their careers.