I had a fun weekend in Hershey, Pennsylvania last weekend. I was at a conference put on by the great people of the Pennsylvania Academy of Family Physicians (PAFP). Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the entire meeting, but I encourage you to check out their website for full coverage of a jam packed schedule of events.
On Friday, I attended an all day educational session having to do with the complicated topic of Asthma. This was a clinical topic module to help maintain my Board Certification through the American Board of Family Medicine.
On Saturday, I took part in what was called DOT Examiner Training, which was also an all day course. A lot of my patients require paperwork for their employer for what is called a "DOT Physical" or "CDL Physical." "DOT" stands for the US "Department of Transportation" and "CDL" stands for "Commercial Drivers License." Many of the people requiring these are truck drivers.
A little more than 2 months from now, May 21, 2014, to be exact, Medical Examiners (like me) who perform DOT/CDL physical exams need to be certified with the Federal Government, or they can no longer perform these exams. This is a huge change from previous, and many physicians are scrambling to get the required training and take the exam.
This PAFP course has been sold out for months, and it was a long day with lots of material to cover. Kudos to the presenters who did all the preparation for this course! Something that was unique to this DOT Training course was that in addition to the physician presenters, there was also a real truck and a representative of a trucking company at the sessions.
During our lunch break, we got to see some of the tasks that truck drivers perform. This really put things together for me in that I was able to appreciate some of the specific muscle groups that are used during something like getting into and out of a truck, climbing into and out of the back of the truck, and the repetitive muscle actions it takes to shift gears and turn the knobs in the cab.
Going through this course really made me appreciate the labor intensive work that these male and female drivers go through on a day-to-day basis. Thanks to PAFP for putting this course together and bringing the truck along for the course participants.
What follows below are pics from my camera from the meeting. They include the AAFP President Dr. Reid Blackwelder, many from the DOT course, and some from the approximate 300 mile trek across the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Enjoy!
