The Ohio Academy of Family Physicians Foundation (Foundation) is pleased to announce that Scott J. Anzalone, MD, FAAFP, of Logan, OH, will receive its 2019 Family Physician Mentorship Award.
The Foundation annually presents the Family Physician Mentorship Award to recognize a community-based Ohio family physician who, as a preceptor, has exhibited exemplary qualities and characteristics of mentorship excellence.
Dr. Anzalone practices full-scope, rural family medicine, minus obstetrics, at his solo practice in Logan. He has close to 4,000 patients ranging in age from 2 days to 97 years. He says his goal is to care for more than 90% of patient problems, aiming to be a one-stop shop for patients who either can’t or don’t want to make the 50-mile trek to Columbus, OH. This is why medical students love precepting with Dr. Anzalone so much – they get vast experience in all elements of rural family medicine.
In addition to tending to his patients, Dr. Anzalone serves as a clinical associate professor and director of longitudinal clerkships at Ohio University’s Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine in Athens, OH. Dr. Anzalone welcomes medical students into his practice every Wednesday afternoon and has the same third-year longitudinal student every Thursday for a full academic year. The longitudinal experience allows students to develop positive relationships with patients in the practice who frequently become like a second family.
When asked why it is important to teach the next generation of family medicine physicians, Dr. Anzalone shared, “I believe we as practicing physicians are responsible to emulate and pass down our experience and knowledge to those coming up. Our specialty is not here just to be a referral source to sub-specialists. We are specialists. A specialty that cares for the entire family from the simplest cold to the most complex illness. Students need to personally be under our wings and see firsthand our work in the trenches, and teaching and mentoring in a continuity manner is the best way to accomplish this goal.”
Dr. Anzalone is living this philosophy and others take notice. According to award nominator Steve Ulrich, MD, “Teaching medical students has always been an integral part of his practice. I first learned of his reputation as a student mentor from one of my own students that had worked with him. They described him as a caring family doctor who took time to teach not only medicine, but hands-on procedures and let them be a part of the practice.”
“By providing time and one-on-one teaching, Dr. Anzalone has exemplified the goal of the Foundation to encourage and support family medicine as a career path for medical students,” Dr. Ulrich continued.
Dr. Anzalone earned his medical degree from the Medical College of Ohio, Toledo, OH, (now the University of Toledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences) and completed his family medicine residency at Memorial Hospital in South Bend, IN.
Dr. Anzalone will be honored during the Academy Awards Dinner on Friday, August 2, from 7:30-9:30 p.m. as a part of the Ohio Academy of Family Physicians’ (OAFP) Family Medicine Celebration at The Grand Event Center in Columbus. Registration to attend the dinner is $50 per person. Reservations can be made through the OAFP website or by calling 800.742.7327.
Also during the awards ceremony, Jeffrey Bachtel, MD, FAAFP, will be presented with the OAFP’s Family Physician of the Year Award; Ann Aring, MD, FAAFP, will be presented with the OAFP’s Family Medicine Educator of the Year Award; and Christian Gausvik, Jr., MD, will be presented with the Resident Leadership Award.
The Foundation is the only 501(c) (3) tax-exempt charitable organization in Ohio that exists to promote family medicine as a career choice to medical students and family medicine residents – building a strong family medicine workforce for Ohio. Family physicians provide comprehensive, continuing care to all members of the family, and high quality, cost effective care to patients of all ages and gender. A strong primary care based health system leads to better health and better care at a lower cost. Its mission is to cultivate student career choice in the specialty of family medicine. For more information, visit www.oafpfoundation.org.
I am the proud mother of Scott Anzalone who has surpassed everything I could have imagined he would do in life.