Anna Flattau, MD, MSc, MS, FAAFP, alumni professor and chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine at Sidney Kimmel Medical College (SKMC) and system chief of primary care at Jefferson Health, has been elected president-elect of the Association of Departments of Family Medicine (ADFM).
The national organization represents academic family medicine leaders across North America. Its membership spans over 144 academic departments and health systems in the United States and Canada.
Family medicine is one of the two largest medical specialties in the nation, with over 120,000 practicing physicians. Through ADFM, academic family medicine leaders collaborate to advance the nation’s health through clinically excellent, research-driven and community-centered primary care.
Dr. Flattau will serve a three-year term — first as president-elect, then as president and finally as board chair — while representing Jefferson’s integrated academic and health system model on the national stage at a pivotal moment for primary care in the United States.
“As a nationwide organization, ADFM is well-positioned to address the challenges family medicine faces, which are among the core challenges of health care in America,” she said. “Increased investment in primary care is required to improve individual and community health nationally, and family medicine is a key voice in broader health services redesign. Delivery systems must support comprehensive, relationship-based primary care so that we can fulfill our critical role in the healthcare ecosystem.”
Dr. Flattau’s leadership at Jefferson combines the responsibilities of an academic department chair; oversight of Jefferson Primary Care, which provides care to approximately one million patients across 150 practice sites; and supervision of a portfolio of innovative care models, such as integrated behavioral health, lifestyle medicine, palliative care and age-friendly care.
“My role at Jefferson has positioned me to align my academic and health system teams, empowering us to strengthen patient care, develop innovative care models, increase health services research and build strong undergraduate and graduate medical education programs,” she said. “Jefferson is certainly one important example of an organization that supports integrated academic and health system leadership.”
Dr. Flattau earned her MD from Harvard Medical School, MSc in health promotion from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and MS in clinical research methodology from Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She completed her residency in family medicine at Columbia University Medical Center. Before joining Jefferson in 2021, she held senior leadership roles at Montefiore Health System and NYC Health + Hospitals, where she served as chief clinical officer for a $1.2 billion Medicaid care redesign initiative spanning over 200 partner organizations.
For Dr. Flattau, the election carries both professional and personal significance. “Family physicians are broadly trained to be responsive to the needs of the communities we serve,” she said. “Decades of evidence have repeatedly demonstrated that high-quality, comprehensive, accessible primary care is critically important for the health of individuals, families and communities. I know that we can leverage the power of academic departments across the country in advancing human health through family medicine.”