Given that Family Practice Management is a journal of practice improvement, it's only reasonable that we should offer an award for practice improvement. This year for the first time, FPM is co-sponsoring such an award with the Conference on Practice Improvement, which is put on annually by the AAFP and the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine. The winning practice will receive a framed certificate, a cash award of $500 and two complimentary registrations to the 2010 Conference on Practice Improvement, which will take place Dec. 2–5 in San Antonio.

Often, people speak of practice improvement as though it were a synonym for clinical outcomes improvement. At FPM, we recognize that clinical outcomes are just one dimension of successful practice. The award is available to practices who have recently made significant improvements in any of the following:

• Efficiency and productivity,

• Patient satisfaction,

• Staff satisfaction,

• Physician satisfaction – and, yes,

• Clinical processes and outcomes.

In other words, improvement in anything from financial performance to workload reduction to clinical care is eligible for the award.

Submissions will be judged on degree and scope of demonstrated improvement, with entries that show innovation and teamwork preferred. Applicants will be asked to describe the challenge they addressed, how they chose to address it, what results they achieved (providing data to quantify the degree of improvement, if available) and what lessons their experience offers to others who might wish to follow the same path. The improvement you achieved needs to be large enough to have made a significant difference to your practice.

If you think your practice might have a shot at the award, I invite you to submit an application. You'll find the call for entries and the application instructions online. The deadline for applications is Aug. 2, 2010, so don't wait!