December 30, 2020
By Amaryllis Sánchez Wohlever, MD
Can you believe the year 2020 is almost behind us? In the midst of the pandemic, the FACTS team rejoiced to celebrate 10 Years of sharing the FACTS with medical professionals! The lively virtual celebration filled us with joy and gratitude as we gathered as a community of medical professionals committed to transforming women’s healthcare. It’s been an amazing decade, and we are grateful for each of YOU — our supporters, team, and benefactors!
As we look ahead to 2021 and the next 10 years, we remain steadfast in our dedication to fulfill our mission. And looking back before moving forward is inspiring, as 2020 found our team ready for the extraordinary challenges we all faced. Just look at all YOU helped us achieve in the year of the pandemic.
2020 Highlights
In 2020, thanks to YOUR generosity and support as well as our team’s dedication, perseverance, and flexibility, we not only maintained our offerings but expanded in important ways.
• Virtual CME conference
The FACTS team hit the ground running when the pandemic began, shifting gears to continue to meet needs in a new reality. We provided our first-ever virtual CME conference with over 170 participants! The conference was so successful that we plan to offer another one on May 14-15, 2021. SAVE the DATES!
• New FACTS elective
Building on the success of our original elective, we expanded our online education from one elective in fertility awareness & family planning to add a second one focused on FABM applications in women’s health. Every 2-week block was full this first semester with record-high enrollment for 2020, and expected to be even higher in 2021! Learn more about our electives here. And, read below to learn what a physician who participated in the FACTS elective this fall had to say.
“The work FACTS is doing to promote fertility awareness-based methods (FABMs) is so important, especially for medical professionals looking for a scientifically and clinically sound approach to family planning and women’s health beyond hormonal contraception. FABMs are not promoted at all in medical education, and FACTS provides an avenue to more easily obtain the resources and knowledge I need to serve patients interested in these methods. Being a part of the FACTS elective during residency allowed me to gain more insight into the benefits of FABMs, and I look forward to utilizing that information moving forward in my future practice.” — Daniel Ortiz, DO (Third-year family medicine resident)
• Medical Professional Database
We are in the final phase and will soon launch a database for medical professionals so women and couples in every state can find physician experts and educators trained in FABMs. Follow the link to provide your information and request to add your practice to our database.
• Honoring our Top Preceptors & Student Writers
We are thrilled to announce our Top 3 preceptors for 2020 and the winners of the first-ever FACTS Excellence in Writing Award! Congratulations to all of you!
Top 3 Preceptors:
– Allison Dreher, MA: Allison Dreher is a certified Billings Ovulation Method teacher who leads a case study discussion twice a month for our students.
– Pearl Huang-Ramírez, MD: Dr. Pearl Huang-Ramírez is a board-certified family physician, Creighton Model medical consultant, and FACTS speaker. She provides a monthly presentation on ‘How to Read the Female Cycle Chart’ and leads case study discussion sessions with our students as well.
– Shirelle Edghill, CFCP: Shirelle Edghill is a certified FertilityCare practitioner who demonstrates for our students how she uses the Creighton Model to help women monitor and understand their reproductive health.
2020 Excellence in Writing Awards
First place winner: Robert Ring, A Couple’s Journey with FABMs
Second place winner: Natalie Santa-Pinter, A Medical Student Learns the Facts Behind FABMs
Third place winner: Jenny Chen, Breastfeeding in Mothers with Covid-19: A Research Review
What’s Coming in 2021
In 2021, in addition to our regular programming, we will launch the directory for medical professionals who wish to list their practice information so patients can locate FABM-trained professionals in their areas. Also, since the demand for our unique online electives keeps growing, we plan to continue to expand the electives to accommodate more students.
If you are interested in serving as a clinical preceptor via telemedicine for our students, please let us know here. And for our physician colleagues, stay tuned as we plan to offer an online continuing medical education (CME) course for YOU to learn more about the various fertility awareness-based methods (FABMs) and their role in restorative reproductive health care.
Author Bio: Amaryllis Sánchez Wohlever, MD is the senior writer and editor for FACTS and assistant course director for the cutting-edge FACTS elective. She is a Board-certified family physician, a national expert in clinician wellness and burnout prevention, and a wellness and leadership coach for physicians. She speaks throughout the country to empower medical professionals with the message of hope from her latest book, Recapturing Joy in Medicine. Dr. Sánchez is grateful to have trained in the Creighton Model early in practice, which transformed her care of women and, years later, led her to FACTS.
Thank YOU from the FACTS Team!
Your generosity has made all this possible. We want to say a special THANK YOU to everyone who has made a donation to FACTS during our 10th Anniversary Celebration campaign, especially our recurring donors who pledged to match up to $10,000 for gifts received. Thus far, we have received $2700 towards our match, and it’s not too late to make your gift to FACTS worth twice the amount! Please donate before 10pm ET on December 31st and help us educate the next generation of medical professionals about FABMs.
Without your support, we would not be able to spread the word about FABMs effectively and fulfill our mission. From the bottom of our hearts, THANK YOU for your SUPPORT of this important work. We wish you a healthy, safe, and inspiring year in 2021!
