{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/3/context.json","id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/iiif/8p5v69b41b/manifest","type":"Manifest","label":{"en":["Dr. Ted Epperly "]},"logo":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/246/original/CenterForHistoryFamilyMedicine_2c_RGB.png?1773344256","metadata":[{"label":{"en":["Rights Statement"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eThis item is protected by U.S. copyright and related rights. It is being made available by the Center for the History of Family Medicine as its rights-holder for noncommercial use, including sharing and adapting the work. No permission is required for noncommercial use so long as attribution is provided. All other uses require permission from the Center for the History of Family Medicine.  Disclaimer:  The views presented in this broadcast are the speaker’s own and do not represent those of CHFM or the AAFP Foundation. The information presented is for general, educational, or entertainment purposes and should not be considered legal, health, financial, or other advice. \u003c/p\u003e"]}},{"label":{"en":["Date"]},"value":{"en":["2022-02-24 (created)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Type"]},"value":{"en":["Oral History"]}},{"label":{"en":["Agent"]},"value":{"en":["Dr. Dan Ostergaard (Interviewer)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Format"]},"value":{"en":["video file"]}},{"label":{"en":["Keyword"]},"value":{"en":["family medicine","family physician","American Academy of Family Physicians"]}},{"label":{"en":["Subject"]},"value":{"en":["Ted Epperly, MD (personal name)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Language"]},"value":{"en":["English (primary)"]}}],"requiredStatement":{"label":{"en":["Attribution"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eThis item is protected by U.S. copyright and related rights. It is being made available by the Center for the History of Family Medicine as its rights-holder for noncommercial use, including sharing and adapting the work. No permission is required for noncommercial use so long as attribution is provided. All other uses require permission from the Center for the History of Family Medicine. \u0026nbsp;Disclaimer: \u0026nbsp;The views presented in this broadcast are the speaker\u0026rsquo;s own and do not represent those of CHFM or the AAFP Foundation. The information presented is for general, educational, or entertainment purposes and should not be considered legal, health, financial, or other advice.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e"]}},"provider":[{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/aboutus","type":"Agent","label":{"en":["Center for the History of Family Medicine"]},"homepage":[{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/","type":"Text","label":{"en":["Center for the History of Family Medicine"]},"format":"text/html"}],"logo":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/246/original/CenterForHistoryFamilyMedicine_2c_RGB.png?1773344256","type":"Image"}]}],"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/291/686/small/EPPERLYTED%284-22%29.mp4_1758123614.jpg?1758123617","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2376/collection_resources/160197/file/291686","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 1 of 1 - EPPERLY_TED_(4-22).mp4"]},"duration":6875.48,"width":640,"height":360,"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/291/686/small/EPPERLYTED%284-22%29.mp4_1758123614.jpg?1758123617","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2376/collection_resources/160197/file/291686/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2376/collection_resources/160197/file/291686/content/1/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://aviary-p-centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.s3.wasabisys.com/collection_resource_files/resource_files/000/291/686/original/EPPERLY_TED_%284-22%29.mp4?1758123539","type":"Video","format":"video/mp4","duration":6875.48,"width":640,"height":360},"target":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2376/collection_resources/160197/file/291686","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2376/collection_resources/160197/file/291686/transcript/84354","type":"AnnotationPage","label":{"en":["Dr. Ted Epperly Interview Transcript [Transcript]"]},"items":[{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2376/collection_resources/160197/file/291686/transcript/84354/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Daniel Ostergaard: Well, hello. I am Dr. Dan Ostergaard. I am talking on Webex from my home office in Olathe, Kansas. I have the honor and privilege of interviewing a real luminary within the specialty of family medicine, Dr. Ted Epperly, and he is in his home office, just outside of Boise, Idaho. Today is February 24th, 2022. [And I have to say that overnight last night, actually very early this morning in Ukraine, something happened, which marks this date. And it bothers me not only for the great scheme of world peace, but also because I have been in Ukraine, I have been in Crimea in the, what was annexed by Russia in the south.]\n\nDaniel Ostergaard: And I have spent some time in Belarus. So I'm familiar with the area and the people are good, and even the Russian people are good. So it is really, really sad to me that early this morning, president Putin of Russia invaded Ukraine and not just in the Donbas Province of the far east, where they've been, but from the north and the east and the south. Ted, you're a military person. You're a caring person. Any comments?\n\nTed Epperly: Yes. I think it is a sad day Dan, I would agree. My thoughts are that we're all in this world together and we all need to help each other solve worldwide problems. So my great hope, especially after spending 21 years in the United States army, is that we don't go to war over this, but that we impose sanctions and continue to talk with all the powers to be Russia, Ukraine, our NATO allies, other nations. We try to bring this under some degree of control without military action, being that Russia is a nuclear power as are we, as is China. And China has made it clear that they're citing with Russia on this.\n\nTed Epperly: This is not the time to escalate this into a potential global nuclear war. And so, I think we've all got to stay calm, continue to use both diplomatic and sanctions approach. Try to avoid a reaction of armed conflict. That would be my [inaudible","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2376/collection_resources/160197/file/291686#t=0.0,172.0"},{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2376/collection_resources/160197/file/291686/transcript/84354/annotation/2","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"] and hope. And as has been said by many people, the arc of history is towards justice. And I think if we continue on in a manner of which we use those sorts of approaches versus armed conflict, we'll eventually resolve this problem.\n\nDaniel Ostergaard: Well, I certainly hope you're right. I have to believe that you're right. And a quick personal note, besides what I said before is I certainly hope we do not dispatch troops because then we really are in it. And I guess I also should say that president Biden's predictions all along for the last two weeks in American intelligence about it, we have certainly proved correct. Okay. So let's get to the fun part, that wasn't the fun part and Ted, let's learn about you. First of all, tell us a little bit about your growing up, where, with whom, et cetera.\n\nTed Epperly: Thank you, Dan. I was born in Nampa, Idaho, which is now a community of about 75,000, but when I was born it was about 10,000, it is located right outside of Boise, Idaho. I was raised in Caldwell, another small rural community, just west of Boise as well  until I was 10. Then my family moved across the state to Idaho Falls which is in the Eastern part of our state, where I graduated high school. I was the oldest of five children.\n\nTed Epperly: And because of that, I was thrust into a leadership role very early in my life of watching over and caring for my brother and sisters. And so it was something that was imparted to me young, and that is to look out for the best interests of others and to care for others and to help others along. It was maybe one of my earliest life lessons and really eventually what led me to be a family medicine doctor.\n\nDaniel Ostergaard: So you just led into the next question. What were the specifics or the generalities, which led you into medicine first of all, and then after that family medicine?\n\nTed Epperly: That's great question. I have a vivid moment of this Dan. When I was 11 years old, the youngest of my five siblings was born. Her name was Jill. She was born with congenital rubella. My mother had gotten pregnant in 1964 with my youngest sister. At that time we did not have rubella vaccines. And my sister was born in the summer of 1965 with horrible defects, both cardiac in the form of transposition of the great vessels, orthopedic and neurologic. She lived to be four years old and died undergoing what was at that time an experimental heart surgery to try to reverse the transposition of the great vessels caused by the congenital rubella. That happened in Salt Lake City.\n\nTed Epperly: My father called me on the day of her death because I was the oldest of the kids at home. I was now 15 years old and my mom and dad were in Salt Lake with my sister for her operation. We were at home. We had a babysitter, but my father asked to specifically speak to me and he said, “Ted, I want you to let your brother and sisters know that Jill has died”. And I'll never forget the moment Dan, because when he told me that, I told him on the spot, on that same phone call that, “I'm going to be a doctor”.\n\nTed Epperly: I had just made up my mind right then because I wanted to help people like my sister and I hung up the phone and told my brother and sisters, and then just broke down and cried. But I was driven like a laser from that moment forward. My path was clear. With my sister dying, my future opened, her door closed, my window became very clear to me and I was going to be a doctor. I subsequently did very well in school. It was a life changing moment for me. I went probably from an average to a little bit above average student to an exceptionally good student.\n\nTed Epperly: I graduated with honors second in my class of 412 high school students. I went to college at Utah State, finished second in college and got accepted to medical school at the University of Washington School of Medicine, which was my state's regional medical school, because Idaho was too small to have a medical school. And that was the closest opportunity that I had. I initially went into medical school thinking I wanted to be a cardiothoracic surgeon for all the reasons that my sister's life and death had led me to. And so I started off down that path, but as so many of us do that go through medical school in my clerkship years, I found I loved every one of my rotations.\n\nTed Epperly: I loved internal medicine. I loved surgery. I loved pediatrics. I loved obstetrics and I didn't want to stop. I didn't want to narrow my course in medicine. I wanted to broaden it. I was one of those true generalists that recognized that the value in being a physician is in knowing a lot of information, not knowing a very limited amount of information. So what drove me through the rest of my medical school career was wanting to learn as much as I could and to understand family dynamics and social issues of people. The social history became as important to me as the medical history of people, because it taught me how people worked and how they thought and how families interacted.\n\nTed Epperly: And I'll never forget the moment, that I decided to apply to family medicine. I was mowing the lawn in my yard in Seattle and I was thinking, okay, Ted, this has been your life course. These are your thoughts. What residency do you want to apply for? And as I was mowing the lawn, Dan, it just flashed into my brain family medicine. And I was again, riveted like a laser straight ahead towards family medicine.\n\nDaniel Ostergaard: Wow. All elements of what you just said are not only a great story, but inspirational. They really are. They're inspirational, Ted. So I think about your little sister and suspect that, that call from your dad also was the beginning of leadership. Because at that point, for that moment, in that place, you were the leader of the rest of the kids in the family until your parents got back.\n\nTed Epperly: Absolutely right. I own the problem if you will. And became counselor  for them too, telling them it will be okay. It was the beginning, maybe the earliest beginnings in many ways of truly the skillset of being a family doctor.\n\nDaniel Ostergaard: Well, and a leader, which you have exhibited in so many other arenas as well. Okay. So now you've had the epiphany mowing the lawn, I never heard that one before about going into family medicine. Where did you go and what did you do?\n\nTed Epperly: So after I graduated from medical school at the University of Washington, I had another conversation with my dad just prior to going to medical school. He said, \"Ted, I'm so proud of you. You're going to medical school. You're the first person in both sides of our family to ever go into medicine.\" But he said, \"I got a real question for you.\" I said, \"Oh, dad, what is that?\" And he said, \"Well, how are we going to pay for this?\" And again, Dan, it was one of those things. First I was pleased that he said, how are we going to pay for this? But I knew my father wasn't well off.\n\nTed Epperly: He owned a small little grocery store in Idaho Falls, a single cash register grocery store. And there were three other children besides myself, that still were in the family and needed raising. And my father couldn't really afford much in the way of tuition to medical school, even back in the day, when you and I went and I matriculated 1976 to medical school, it was extremely cheap compared to today's prices, but still back in 1976, it was a lot of money. So I made another decision, almost on the spot.\n\nTed Epperly: And I told my dad, I said, \"Dad, don't worry about it. I'll figure out a way to pay for medical school.\" A friend of mine had an ROTC scholarship in the Air Force. And he was telling me that he had just read about medical scholarships for students that had got accepted to medical school that could apply for these military scholarships in the Army,the Air Force and in the Navy. And that the military would pay all tuition, all books and supplies and give you $400 a month as a stipend.\n\nTed Epperly: And I went, \"You got to be kidding me. They will pay my way to medical school and give me $400 a month?\" And he said, \"Yeah.\" And he said, \"But you got to apply, because it's a competitive process. But I know you Ted and you've gotten great grades and you're great person and student and I think you've got a real shot at this.\" So I went down, and picked up the application papers and filled them all out and sent them in to the department of defense. Here's this little kid from Idaho that knows nothing about the military. I was just hoping not to get drafted, to go to Vietnam back in the day because the draft was alive and well.\n\nTed Epperly: And here I am applying to the United States Army and lo and behold, they accepted me right away. And so I got a military scholarship. It paid my way through medical school and in return I had to give them back four years of active-duty service after my residency and they wanted me to apply to a military residency. So, I did, and there is a big Army base  south of Seattle, right outside of Tacoma, Washington called Fort Lewis. Fort Lewis had a large army medical center there called Madigan Army Medical Center. It had multiple residencies including family medicine.\n\nTed Epperly: And so I applied to be a resident at Madigan Army Medical Center and I got accepted. I did a three year residency in the military and had a great experience at Madigan Army Medical Center. The military has a lot of patients to care for, not only active duty soldiers and their young families, but all the retirees that settle around these military medical bases, so I had just scores of opportunity. I delivered well over 350 babies and I saw thousands and thousands a of patients.\n\nTed Epperly: I had all sorts of experiences and grew and developed quite a bit as I was going through, I think the military also identified in me that leadership gene that you had talked about, that I think was ingrained a bit from me being the oldest of five and helping my family and kids, brothers, and sisters. And I got elected to be the chief resident and in the chief resident role at Madigan, I did a lot of teaching and that caught a lot of people's attention. They liked my teaching style., they knew that I had a gene for teaching. I think that was one of the natural tendencies of helping my brother and sisters is to be a bit of a teacher and educator for them.\n\nTed Epperly: And so that word spread quite rapidly amongst the military community.  Right after residency, I got recruited for my first active duty assignment to another family medicine residency program all the way across the country  at Fort Benning, Georgia. So, I went from my residency and now started my four year obligation payback period at Fort Benning, Georgia. While there I got promoted to a major from a captain and also, they wanted me to become the residency director of the family medicine residency program after my third year there. \n\nDaniel Ostergaard: How old were you? That's a pretty young residency director.\n\nTed Epperly: Yes, it is. Let's see, I would've been 32. So 32years old when I got asked to be a residency director and it was right at the beginning of my fourth year of payback. And so, I think the military is sneaky smart about stuff like that. If they want to try to keep you in the service, they keep dangling jobs in front of you that keep you in, and so they did. And to do that job, I needed to extend my military service for a four year period so that I could then successfully work four years in that role of being the family medicine program director at Fort Benning.\n\nTed Epperly: I did that. I really enjoyed it. I made a lot of great friends, of course, that were not only my family medicine colleagues, residents and students, but a lot of patients and a lot of people and I really thoroughly enjoyed that. I knew that graduate medical education was for me. a Then a really important event happened, and I want to tell you about this one. The Gulf War started. So this was now 1990, and just like you started this off today with Russia invading the Ukraine, Iraq did the same thing by invading Kuwaitand we did escalate this into an armed conflict.\n\nTed Epperly: And what happened at Fort Benning, this was back in the day when residents were looked at as being part of the workforce, not learners in residence but could be utilized by the military any way they wanted. They took four residents right out of my class and sent them off to the Gulf. And I protested that. I said, \"You've got to be kidding me, these are not fully formed family medicine doctors. They are first year, second year, and third year residents in training.\" And I said, \"It's not right that you take them and you should be taking the faculty members, not the residents.\"\n\nTed Epperly: So I said, \"I'm going to volunteer to go to the Gulf because I don't feel right that they go and I don't.\" And  the Army said, \"Okay, you're going too.\" And so I got sucked up into the whole Desert Storm situation and became the lead emergency medicine physician, because family medicine doctors have so many skills. They wanted me to be in charge of all of the trauma and emergency medicine at a MASH hospital forward deployed in both Saudi Arabia and in Iraq. So that was my job. I was the chief of emergency medicine at the second MASH Army medical surgical hospital. And I did that through the entirety of the Gulf War.\n\nTed Epperly: Fortunately, the war didn't last long, it was really about a five day war for the most part. But by the time I went over and by the time I got back, I was deployed for six months. All of my fellow residents made it through okay, they all returned home. And there's one last piece of this story I'd like to tell, because it's really important. After the war was over, they convened a department of defense meeting and at that meeting, they talked about what went right with this war and deployment, what went wrong, what needs to be reinforced, what needs to be changed.\n\nTed Epperly: And I got up at this big meeting in Phoenix, Arizona, where they had this and I spoke pretty eloquently and pretty passionately about how you cannot take learners from graduate medical education programs out of residencies and send them off to war. You cannot do this! This has to be the faculty, or other people that have already graduated. It is not right to take a student in learning, just like taking a child from your home and sending them off to war. They need to be fully formed and lo and behold, if the department of defense across the board changed their stance on that.\n\nTed Epperly: And so it is now policy in the United States military that in armed conflict, they don't take residents out of training. So it was one of my earliest examples of learning, how to advocate and to be a leader to advocate for others, which I later used in spades at the AAFP\n\nDaniel Ostergaard: So Ted, a couple of questions or points. So that is all services you said across DOD. So it's not just the army. It's wow, that is a major step. And when you said you were the senior ER guy, if you will, in a forward MASH unit, was that in Kuwait, or was that in Saudi?\n\nTed Epperly: Yeah. We were predeployed in Saudi Arabia on the border of Iraq. And then when the war started, Dan, the MASH hospitals, there are about five of them and we leapfrogged each other as we followed the military deployment of the armor calvary and infantry units into Iraq. So that as they move forward, the MASH hospitals would. There were five in a sequence that would leapfrog each other. So there was always one right at the front line and then there were other ones back behind that they could ship people to.\n\nTed Epperly: And as the troop move movement moved forward, the one in the back would close up because you could take these down and put them up in a 24 hour timeframe and it would leapfrog forward so that we always had open hospitals, but they were always being moved forward as well.\n\nDaniel Ostergaard: Okay. So I did read most of your CV, but it was pretty big. And I certainly won't ask you to recite it, or me to ask something about all of it, but for two other parts of your military time, I'd like you to get into, and then you can add whatever you were in many, many situations besides Madigan and Fort Benning and Desert Storm, but I noticed two more. I'd like you to comment on at least them and more if you'd like, and that is, you were also in Desert Shield. And the other one is you spent some time at USUHS.\n\nTed Epperly: Yes. The Desert Shield part became the early part of the Gulf War before the war started. When the light switch flipped and we went to an active, armed conflict in Iraq, then it became Desert Storm. So Desert Shield morphed into Desert Storm. So that was part of that piece. When I came back from the war, and this would've now been , early summer of June of 1991, I was finishing up my program director time there. and I got recruited from there by a wonderful family doctor named Jay Fogarty, who was my department chair at Fort Benning.\n\nTed Epperly: Jay was our department chairman, a wonderful person. I really like Jay a lot. And he had just prior to the war, been promoted to be the department chairman of family medicine at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences. When I got back from the war, Jay recruited me and he was the one that recruited me to be the program director at Fort Benning. He recruited me to come on as a faculty member at USUHS and I was really happy to do that. I spent from 1991 to 1994 at USUHS training medical students in the art of family medicine and physical exam skills and I worked in the family medicine clinic at USUHS caring for all those students and their families.\n\nTed Epperly: I also did rotations over at Andrews Air Force Base, which is just outside of Washington DC, and worked with the residency over there. And again, a lot of wonderful teaching opportunities and experiences. There's another part of my time at USUHS that I think bears a note, when I was at USUHS I was fortunate enough to get to work with the staff of two presidents of the United States. Since we were located in Bethesda, Maryland at USUHS, the military was chosen to be the physicians for the presidents of the United States.\n\nTed Epperly: They wanted military physicians and in particular very much wanted military family medicine physicians. They wanted that broad skillset, they wanted doctors that could handle all sorts of problems and they wanted doctors that could also be very adept at emergencies, because you can just imagine if you were on the president physician staff and the president got shot, or something happened that they would want that first doctor to know what they were doing and to be competent to handle them. So, I was fortunate to be able to work with the administration of George HW Bush, the first George Bush, president number 41, and work with his presidential staff as one of the physicians that would help in the scenario of a nuclear war.\n\nTed Epperly: The service that I was involved with as a secondary job while I was at USUHS was training in the event of a nuclear war, they would have four physicians deployed across the United States to care for whatever existed of the federal government in bunkers located in four different locations. My job was to be assigned to one of those bunkers and to care for whatever.\n\nremained of the leadership hierarchy of the Federal Government. As you might know, Dan, many of our listeners won't, is that there are 26 people in the role of succession to be President of the United States. They would divide up whoever was left and spread them out and my job was to then give medical care for all those people assigned to the bunker that I was in, whatever state that was going to be.\n\nTed Epperly: I'll never forget that, because we trained hard for that. We had to be competent, not only with emergency medicine, but with radiation, biological and chemical accidents. We were very broadly trained to be able to handle all of those. Most of the focus was on radiation illness, thinking that if it was post nuclear, there would be a lot of radiation injuries. But one of the things they taught us was that if and when we get warning of a nuclear attack on Washington DC, and this whole plan gets mobilized, we will give you a phone call and there will be code given to you, you must already be packed and have everything ready to go. You will have approximately two minutes to get dressed, to kiss your wife and children goodbye, and we'll pick you up because you probably won't see them again.\n\nTed Epperly: And I get quite emotional telling this story right now, because I lived in fear of a phone call in the middle of the night. I was used to getting phone calls in the middle of the night as a physician, but this was a different sort of phone call in the middle of the night. And thank God, it never materialized.  It was, I think, very poignant of you to start this interview today, talking about Russia and Ukraine, because it brings back a tremendous amount of memory in terms of why I said what I said about I don't want this to escalate into armed conflict that could lead to nuclear war, because it brings back a lot of memories of those early 1990s when we thought that might happen. I'm glad to have the opportunity to share that story, because things like that just get swept along with time and people forget what goes into trying to keep a nation intact medically, with the leadership of the country at a time of great conflict.\n\nDaniel Ostergaard: Wow. What you have just relayed, I had no idea. I've been into the White House with the medical people that serve from the military or serve in the White House, but I never heard that story. Certainly not from you, but not from anybody else. I need to interject, one of the failings of a moderator is to use an acronym. What is USUHS?\n\nTed Epperly: Oh, yes.\n\nDaniel Ostergaard: Say it out and say where it is, and what it is.\n\nTed Epperly: Yes. Thank you, Dan. USUHS stands for the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences. It is the Department of Defense's Medical School that is located in Bethesda, Maryland. USUHS, as its colloquially called, or some call it USU, has a class size of at least, in the day that I was there roughly about 160 to 180, with 60 pretty much students that represent Army students, 60 Navy students and 60 Air Force students, so that all three services are represented in each class, and it is a way for the Department of Defense to grow their medical workforce and have a pipeline for specially trained physicians that can easily work in and rise to leadership positions in the Department of Defense.\n\nTed Epperly: When I applied to medical school in 1976, USUHS was just starting, and I didn't even know about it. Of course, I didn't know much about the Army either. I didn't apply, but I didn't know, I think it was their first class. I would've applied, if I would've known as a possible medical school. The USUHS Medical School started roughly right about that 1976 timeline.\n\nDaniel Ostergaard: Well, I have been always impressed with people there. I knew of course, Jay Fogarty and Jeannette South-Paul. I've had relatives there and I now have a nephew there, a great nephew, and it's a wonderful place, but we have to move on to what you did in Boise here pretty soon. But you said you had a couple of things about USUHS that you wanted to say, and you said that one, what's the other one? Two presidents, who was the other president?\n\nTed Epperly: Yes. Thank you, Dan. The other opportunity I had at USUHS was I got nominated to be a White House physician for President Bill Clinton. This was just at the termination of my time at USUHS,  in1994. There were 25 applicants and they narrowed us down to a group of three and I was one of the three finalists. And that was to join the existing White House physician staff for President Clinton and all of his people. What is not known by the American public is how many people actually are engaged with active roles in the White House, there was a staff there of about 2500 people working in various capacities at the White House.\n\nTed Epperly: The physician role cared for all 2500 of those, as well as the President of the United States and the first family, the Secret Service and their families, as well as all the administration over in the Eisenhower building, which was just across the street from the White House. There was a large number of people that were cared for. The physician team consisted of five or six physicians I had the full-on interviews at the White House, had all of the top secret Yankee White, it's called Yankee White security clearance through the FBI and Secret Service, the whole nine yards.\n\nTed Epperly: I was not chosen as the final physician, but was chosen as the alternate physician so that if anything happened to any of those physicians on the team, then I would be the first person to be rotated into the sequence. In many ways, it turned out well that I didn't actually do that. It would've probably kept me as a White House physician for four years of time. And subsequently what happened was that same summer, I got recruited to be the Department Chairman of Family Medicine at Eisenhower Army Medical Center, which is in Augusta, Georgia. I rotated out still in this alternate role because I could be called back to DC if anything happened to one of the other physicians, fortunately nothing did.\n\nTed Epperly: But because of that, I then got back into the role of Graduate Medical Education. I was the Department Chair of a large primary care system in the military in south east Georgia. And we had multiple residency programs, with family medicine being one of those. It got me back into both leadership and graduate medical education, running a department now in Augusta, Georgia. That was the three years of intense time at USUHS. I very much enjoyed that. We did multiple medical speaking tours for the Department of Defense, lecture series that we provided both in Europe and Korea. We were always on the road to give lectures, to provide continuing medical education for the military in Europe and Korea and other locations. It was a wonderful opportunity to see a lot of the world. I was involved with the first NATO experience of graduate medical education training and sharing of continuing medical education in the former Soviet controlled country of Hungary when it opened up right after the fall of the Soviet Union in '89.\n\nTed Epperly: And they were with glasnost and opening up. We did quite a bit of medical stuff. General Mike Scotty was the commander of all medical forces in Europe. And Mike brought us over as teachers from USUHS to speak at the conference. I got the opportunity to see multiple countries in the former Soviet Union that had now opened up, Hungary, most notably. Some of our paths crossed a little bit in regards to our experience with Eastern Europe because of my military time, humanitarian time, but that was all part of the USUHS experience. It was very formative for me to be involved, not only as a teacher, an educator, and a physician, but to continue to grow military leadership skills and then to see behind the curtain on how the Federal Government worked, how it would respond in the time of an emergency, such as nuclear war and to see how the whole caring system happened for the President of the United States.\n\nDaniel Ostergaard: Thanks. Again, very, very interesting. I would like to now remember something in your CV, because you went back to Boise as a PD. As a Program Director, I think. Anyway, it was about the time of 9/11. Where were you on 9/11, and what was your personal situation on 9/11?\n\nTed Epperly: Yeah ,great question. I wrapped up my military time, 21 years of active duty service in July 2001.The Army in its inimical way was dangling another carrot for me to become a commander of one of the Army hospitals. And I had a choice to make, because at the same time I had gotten sent a letter by Jeannette South-Paul, a name, we talked about, Jeannette, a dear friend and family medicine doctor  who was the Chair of the Department of USUHS. Jeannette was now in civilian practice as the Department Chair at the University of Pittsburgh and Jeannette sent me a letter that she had seen about this program director job in Boise, Idaho. She knew I was from Idaho and knew that I loved to teach. We had both been USAFP presidents, Uniform Services Academy of Family, Physician presidents, Jeannette, me and Jay Fogarty as well.\n\nTed Epperly: We had a tight bond if you will, for leadership for the AAFP for GME,  she sent this to me, and I had a choice to make, the choice was to stay in the Army, go be a commander of a hospital, and to go up that path, or it was to leave after 21 years of active duty service, at this time I was now a full colonel in the United States Army. And I had been given the opportunity to leave that behind and to go back to my home state and to help grow family medicine and graduate medical education in a state that desperately needed it. It was a difficult decision. And I'll never forget, this is an important story to capture, I'm sitting at my desk in Augusta, Georgia contemplating, which of these two paths to take because there's an old Chinese proverb by Confucius that says, “that a man who chases two rabbits catches neither”.\n\nTed Epperly: And I had to choose which rabbit to take. I'm sitting at my desk, and it's a cloudy day in Augusta, Georgia, which isn't uncommon because they get a lot of rain. And all of a sudden this shaft of light broke through the clouds, it was almost like a beam and it highlighted a piece of paper on my desk. I kid you not, and that piece of paper was the application for the job of the program director and CEO at the Family Medicine Residency of Idaho in Boise, Idaho,\n\nTed Epperly: on the spot, I picked up the phone and I called that number. And I said, \"I'm still here in the United States military. I still have a bit of an obligation to go. I saw your application for the program director position, I've had experience doing that, I've had a lot of experience with graduate medical education and I'm very interested.  I just want to know, would you hold the spot for somebody like me still in the military who has a bit of an obligation left? I wouldn't be there for another year, but would you hold the position, because if you would, I'll send you my CV and application, if not, then I understand and you can move on with your search and I'll move on with my life too.\" And I'll never forget the response of the lady, she said, \"For the right person we'll hold the spot.\" I took that as a yes and I sent in my application. They had 14 applicants and I was chosen. And so, it took me then, at the end of July, roughly of 2001 to Boise, Idaho.\n\nTed Epperly: I started my first day in Boise as the program director and CEO of our system, because it was not only a Family Medicine Residency program, but it also was a 501(3)(C) nonprofit clinic, with two clinic sites that I was over. I was the CEO of the system as well, so with that, in charge of all of the activities, not only the residents and faculty and graduate medical education, but hiring, firing of nurses and receptionists and making sure that everything was working.   I started that job on the 1st of September 2001. Ten days later, 9/11 happened. I'll never forget that. I'm at home, it's early in the morning, Boise time, I hear this news break over, National Public Radio, which I was listening to, that said that the south tower of the World Trade Center had just had a plane crash into it.\n\nTed Epperly: And I ran to the TV set and turned it on, just in time to see a plane crash into the north tower, I saw it live, and I went, oh my God, it was purposeful. I'll never forget driving into work and pulling all the people together in our conference room and talking to them that it'd be okay, we're going to get through this. It was very reminiscent of me talking with my brother and sisters of the death of my younger sister, it's going to be okay, we'll get through this. The military will think through what its response is. We'll figure out what and who did this and we're going to be okay. I don't see this being a huge big war, but we'll certainly go after who's done this. And then I worried that I would get recalled in the United States military, my official retirement date wasn't until the 30th of September, this had happened on 11th of September.\n\nTed Epperly: I had, basically 19 days that they could recall me before I was officially retired. The military Department of Defense also has a policy though, that it can recall any physician up to the age of 65 in time of a catastrophic national emergency. I was certainly on the hook longer than that, but at least they could revoke my retirement orders and bring me back on. I called the Pentagon about a day and a half later, because they were busy. They'd just been crashed into as well on 9/11. Fortunately, the people that I needed to talk to weren't injured or killed, and I talked with the main recruiter, the main person that was over the deployments of all physicians in the United States military.  I knew him personally and he was another great family doctor named George Weightman.\n\nTed Epperly: And I said to George,  \"George, just be straight up with me, I've just started a new job here, I'm 10 days into the job, but let me know if I've got to report for active duty so that I can start to get plans in place for my new program here with a substitute for a while I am away, until I were to get back, if I get pulled back into the military.\" And he said, Ted, \"I'm in a series of really important meetings. I'll give you a call back within 48 hours to let you know.\" He said, \"Right now, I think that we're trying to figure out exactly how big of a response we're going to have.\"\n\nTed Epperly: George, true to his word, called me back about 48 hours later, and said, \"Ted, we're going to have a limited call up. It's going to be very focused. We feel we have all the assets necessary at this point. Don't  worry, I know you've just left. I know you're just getting things started there in Idaho. Don't worry, you'll be okay.\" And so 19 days came and passed and at midnight on 30 September, my wife and I popped a bottle of champagne and had a big glass to celebrate that I had now officially retired from the United States Army.\n\nDaniel Ostergaard: Well, I bet Lindy had an extra glass because she was so happy you didn't have to go back. Now that's quite a lead in to your time at Boise. I mean, it, you just gave us that timestamp of 9/11 and you went there as a program director and CEO of a system, but as you were there, the place grew. I mean, I don't remember now how many residency are in Idaho and connected with Boise, but there's certainly a few, maybe five. And also it's when you started, no, you were involved in the academy through your presidency of the Uniform Services chapter, but now the American Academy, how did you grow the Boise enterprise and still go up the chain, the commissions and the chairs to become president of the academy?\n\nTed Epperly: That's a great question. And the simple short answer is, a great team. We had a really good team of people back here in Boise and I had a wife who both understood and supported this. The transition, as you and I have talked about before Dan, transitions are always important. It was at the time of this transition again, now from the military into the civilian sector that I got very interested in pursuing things in the AAFP more. Let me tell you a short story of why that is. I got out of the military and came back to Boise, and I just saw how dysfunctional the healthcare system was.\n\nTed Epperly: We had two magnificent hospitals that were gleaming edifices, had waterfalls in the foyers and grand pianos. They were really loaded with robotic surgery and DaVinci operating systems just coming into place. They were competing with each other, with who had the biggest helicopter to go pick up sick patients from hospitals and in the shadows of those hospitals, they had people with mental illness, diabetes, hypertension, and depression that weren't being well cared for. It was a totally broken system. In fact, it was so broken and such a have and have not system, that the disparities in care were striking. I'll never forget calling my wife who was still back in Augusta, Georgia where the youngest of our two sons was finishing his last year in high school as we opted to have him finish there at his request.\n\nTed Epperly: So, Lindy stayed back with him and my oldest son, Morgan, and I moved out to Boise, Idaho. I called her u, and I said, “Lindy, the healthcare system is so badly broken on the civilian side that I don't know if I can take it”. And I said, “it's not just Boise, this could be Seattle, it could be Portland, it could be San Francisco, it could be Cincinnati, it could be Baltimore. It's just broken all across the nation”. And I'll never forget, again, the importance of that single phone call.  She said to me, \"Ted, I hear your frustration. What are you going to do about it?\"\n\nDaniel Ostergaard: Good for her.\n\nTed Epperly: Good for her. I mean, we all need a wife like that! I decided again on the spot that I was going to run for the board of directors of the AAFP, because I had lived the experience through the Uniform Service Academy to see how functional the AAFP was. I loved its Congress of Delegates. I loved the fact that we could set policy for an academy. I loved  to see how that policy could be implemented and executed at a national level and it became clear to me that the way to try to help start to fix the healthcare system was to get engaged with the American Academy of Family Physicians through its board of directors and start set policy. Policy created by the Congress of Delegates, but implemented and acted on by the board of directors along with our leadership through the president, president elect and the chairman of the board, along with the senior staff of the academy. It was a really highly functional team.\n\nTed Epperly: It was the most functional team I'd seen, even exceeding that in the military in terms of getting things done. It was with that experience and stabilizing activities at my place, we grew the organization, things were on an even keel, and I was hungry for the opportunity to have increased leadership and increased opportunity to then help make this change happen at a systems level, at a national level, not just trying to fix one each at Boise, Idaho, but how do we start to repair a badly broken healthcare system. And I  think it was the transition from the military to the civilian sector that helped me see that. I'd come from a highly military system where our focus was on quality of care and keeping people healthy, not on making money on treating their disease and sicknesses.\n\nTed Epperly: We all got paid a salary and our salary was based on rank and years in service. It wasn't based on how many procedures I did. In fact, the whole purpose was to keep people healthy and to keep them out of the hospital, not to put them in the hospital and make money from doing things to them. I swear, that it was that transition that helped me see this. It's like the story of the frog and the boiling pot. If you put a frog in boiling pot and slowly turn up the temperature, the frog just stays in there and boils to death. He doesn't have the wherewithal to jump out, but if you throw a frog into the boiling pot, it immediately jumps right out of the pot. And I felt like I was the frog.\n\nTed Epperly: I had just been thrown from a very functional system where prevention, wellness and quality of care was our goal, to a system that was a reactive system built on making money. And I was that frog and I just immediately responded by jumping out. The academy gave me the opportunity, for a path to try to make change happen. I talked with my colleagues at the Idaho Academy of Family Physicians because I didn't want to step on anybody's toes. I was just fresh out of the military and nobody was interested in running for the board.\n\nTed Epperly: I did, they supported me. And low and behold, I got elected to the board of directors, which was of great joy to me, one of the highlights of my career, and served for three years and ran successfully for the president elect, another highlight for me. I really enjoyed that. And then served for three years in the academy's leadership positions, president elect for a year, president for a year and chairman of the board for a year. Those three years were highly formative because it was at the same time that we had a presidential election and President Obama got elected to be president. And so, it was an opportunity right in the wheelhouse of my time as a senior leader in the academy to then be able to work and helped develop the Affordable Care Act. I had 18 trips to Washington, D.C. During that time, I testified to multiple committees of Congress both on the House and Senate side. I met with President Obama and his staff on six occasions and had a lot of say in pushing forward the agenda of the academy around the importance of family medicine, the importance of primary care, the importance of prevention and wellness.\n\nTed Epperly: The importance of integrating and coordinating the system through a team-based approach that family medicine doctors could deliver. So that is how I got through this transition. The transition helping open my eyes to what was broken with our system. The academy being an avenue in which I could then help make change happen and how I got engaged with the academy, which then led me into these positions of being able to try to make the change happen in the US healthcare system.\n\nDaniel Ostergaard: Ted, of course, I remember those days very well. I remember your leadership, but I also remember that not every one of the AAFP members were enamored with the Affordable Care Act. And at that time pejoratively called it Obamacare and now at least most of us lovingly call it Obamacare. Did you have some vilification tossed at you?\n\nTed Epperly: Oh yeah. I'm, I'm glad you brought this up. I was a bit naive, I think. I assumed that everybody wanted to try to have a better healthcare system, funny me for thinking that. And what I recognized is that the majority of people did, but not everybody. So, through my course of advocacy,  I went to all 50 states. I spoke with almost every single state chapter as well during this time with thousands and thousands  of family doctors. Not everybody was on board with this in fact, a lot of people weren't.\n\nTed Epperly: So during the course of my advocacy for the Affordable Care Act and a better healthcare system, I jokingly say that I hit for the cycle. In baseball, hitting for the cycle is in one game you get a single, a double, a triple and a home run. Well, in the course of one year, I was called a Nazi, a communist, a socialist and a fascist by my fellow family medicine doctors. So I had a lot of vilification and hate letters sadly and the academy did too.\n\nTed Epperly: It was shocking to me because I thought we were all in this for the right reasons and that was to help people. Not to necessarily have this be only what would help us as physicians. And I'll never forget a discussion I had with the president of the American Medical Association during this timeframe, marvelous guy. He was a cardiothoracic surgeon, looked like a Marine; crew cut, wiry, older than I was, reminded me a lot of military generals, quite frankly. He looked like he was just freshly minted out of the Marine Corps.\n\nTed Epperly: I'll never forget this, .he says to me, \"God bless you, Ted. Everybody knows we need more family medicine doctors in the United States.\" he said, \"I want to make one thing really crystal clear to you, \"I will fight you to the death for every penny you try to take out of my pocket.\" And I'll never forget that moment, of being totally shocked. In the response to him  I said, \"You know, that's part of the problem.\" and he looked at me, equally stunned, I think, and he said, \"Well, what's that?\" and I said, \"See, the issue is that it shouldn't be about us as doctors. It should be about the people of America that we’re trying to help have a better healthcare system.\"\n\nTed Epperly: I'll never forget he had no response to that. And so, I used that response and to many of my family medicine colleagues, “is this about us or is this about trying to be a part of a better healthcare system to serve the people of the United States”? And I said, \"If it's about us, then I guess I can understand where you're coming from, that it's just your revenue and your income that you care are about. But if it's about the people of the United States and us being a part of providing a better healthcare system, then I would think that you would want to be on board with trying to help that happen.\"\n\nTed Epperly: And so, it was one of those great responses, I think over time that helped me get through this, because it is hard getting hate mail from people that I've always loved and respected. But recognizing there's a higher calling here that we're trying to do. In retrospect, it was humorous. At the time, it was painful. But it helped me get through to keep this ass our North Star. The North Star that we're working on are the people of the country, not to protect physicians' incomes.\n\nDaniel Ostergaard: Yeah. I remember him very well, he was Bill [inaudible","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2376/collection_resources/160197/file/291686#t=172.0,3859.0"},{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2376/collection_resources/160197/file/291686/transcript/84354/annotation/3","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"]. And he did look like he was right out of the military, but you nailed him. I mean, you absolutely nailed him. And if he had no response that's because there was no response that he had. So that's a great story. So you've thought Obamacare, or again, ACA was probably the biggest thing if I can think through your tenure.\n\nDaniel Ostergaard: But what about some other controversies? I recall you had a whole bunch of internal struggles with what we used to call the Coke deal, where the academy got involved with the Coca-Cola and the other academic medical organizations were appalled at the fact we as the academy got into a deal with Coca-Cola. Comment on that, please.\n\nTed Epperly: I certainly will. As with most stories, the context is really important. We'd just gone through the 2008 banking crisis and the financial systems of the country were in horrible shape. The stock market had a major crash. The prices of things were falling through the floor of the revenue of the academy because it had a lot of stock holdings as part of the cash reserve, and they were being depleted. We went through horrible exercises of potential reduction in force of academy staff and of academy resources.\n\nTed Epperly: So, one of the ideas that came up were could we find other revenue streams that are outside of the ordinary to help make sure that we had margin? The old statement of no margin, no mission. And so, the idea to potentially partner with Coca-Cola came up. I'm not sure how we got to that, but it was a fair idea for us to entertain. The deal was not to promote Coca-Cola and sucrose and the high caloric drinks. It was to help them and what they wanted our help with was to promote their diet drinks so that it would be a potential solution to obesity and diabetes.\n\nTed Epperly: And so, the thought was is there a partnership that could be formed with Coca-Cola that could help target safer drinks that would help with the nation's epidemic of obesity and growing prediabetes and diabetes? And so, that was the context in which we started to entertain the Coke deal. I remember vividly, board of directors meetings where we debated the pros and cons of this. I was absolutely adamant that we don't do this, that the impression that the public would have of America's family doctors falling into bed with Coca-Cola was not one we wanted.\n\nTed Epperly: Similarly, we didn't want to get in bed with the cigarette industry somehow promoting cigarette products. Even if they were deemed to be a safer approach, it just wasn't a good look. The optics were wrong., I remember us debating back and forth over this issue. And in my board chair year it came to a vote, do we do this or do we not? It was a pretty lucrative contract. If I remember right, it was about $500,000, which seemed like a lot of money back in that time. I think this is about 2009- 2010 now per year for multi-years to help promote and work on this with Coca-Cola.\n\nTed Epperly: It came time to a vote and I remember speaking adamantly against this, but I reminded the board that I'm just one vote., you each have to vote your conscience. I reminded the board as well, that once the vote was taken, we needed to speak with one voice. It was a rule of the board and it was a good rule, so that we didn't undercut each other, we didn't undermine the agenda and it came to a vote. I recall, the vote was 17-3 in favor of the Coke contract, I was one of the three no votes.\n\nTed Epperly: So, we were left with a policy now to go forward with and to support this contract. I'll never forget because I was the board chair and I was asked to represent the board in terms of to the Congress of delegates about why we did this. I was really struggling with this one because I knew that I wasn't in favor of it. But one thing the academy teaches you is how to be thoughtful and how to speak well, how to make points clearly.\n\nTed Epperly: So, the only way I could wrap my head around this one, was to think about sharing with my fellow family doctors at the Congress of Delegates. The fact that this was an opportunity for us to partner with a different sort of entity, Coca-Cola, in this case, and to take a look at collaborating with them in a way that might help us with a different approach to solving obesity and diabetes.\n\nTed Epperly: So, \"Let's give it a chance. Let's look at it as an opportunity. Let's evaluate our progress and our data and if we're making inroads with this, then it'll be worthwhile because we thought out of the box.\" I think it was good enough that most of the Congress felt that at least we hadn't lost all of our marbles and that we were trying to do something in a different way that would be a bit of a win-win. A win for revenue for the academy, but also a win for maybe approaching a public health problem.\n\nTed Epperly: So that was maybe one of the most controversial issues outside of the Affordable Care Act, which by far and away was more positive than negative. I think that was one of the most controversial issues I dealt with in my time with the academy.\n\nDaniel Ostergaard: Well, and then I don't remember how long it lasted, but it was canceled a few years later. Okay, let's take a little break and we'll come back, and we'll talk about all of the multiple things you did after your main presidential time with the academy.\n\nDaniel Ostergaard: Well, Ted, we've talked a lot about your early time in the military, especially, and those many, many roles and then your leadership. Well, you didn't tell me how big the Boise enterprise has gotten. So tell us how big is the Boise enterprise since you went there right out of the military, when it was just you were the PD and the CEO of a small system.\n\nTed Epperly: Thank you, Dan. It's grown by 700%, over sevenfold. So when I got here, we started with one family medicine residency, one sports medicine fellowship and two clinics. We had about 80 employees and a budget of just right around $6 to $7 million. Now the organization has five residency programs, four in family medicine, one in pediatrics and we're working on the development of one in general surgery and we have seven fellowships.\n\nTed Epperly: We've grown from those 80 stalwart employees to 437. And our budget has grown to be $50 million this year on its way to about $55 million next year. We've grown quite a bit! We've grown from our two clinic spots to now 10 clinic spots, all spread throughout Southwestern Idaho. We have gone from a state where graduate medical education was ranked 49th out of 50 states in terms of the number of physicians per capita and we've increased the number of programs across the state as well.\n\nTed Epperly: The Governor actually put me in charge of developing a 10-year strategic plan for the state of Idaho and we've been able to execute on that. In 2017, there were nine total GME programs of all types in the state of Idaho. Our plan will take us to 23 GME programs and we're about halfway through that right now. We're in year five of growing all sorts of graduate medical education in the state of Idaho to help develop a pipeline in workforce.\n\nTed Epperly: And that gets back to a point, that we just touched on briefly in the earlier part of our oral history and that is the importance of a team. I've been blessed to have a really good functional team back here in Boise, from all the program directors and now of all these residency programs and fellowships, to our administrative staff, to our chief operating officer, to our chief nursing officer. They're just wonderful people and we've grown and thrived.\n\nTed Epperly: The state has been supportive even though we're a pretty conservative state fiscally. They see the value of having family medicine doctors and physicians in the state. Mainly because if they help grow this, they know that these doctors are going to care for their constituents. It's a good message to be able to get out to rural places. They need more manpower,they need more physicians, more nurses, more integrated patient-centered medical home teams to care for their communities and their constituents.\n\nTed Epperly: It has really worked extremely well. I made the right choice. Remember back in the earlier part of this interview, we talked about the man who chases two rabbits catches neither. I chose the right path, instead of climbing the mountain to potentially be a general in the United States Army and to be a hospital commander, I chose coming back to a state that desperately needed to grow its physician workforce. It has been the right choice.\n\nTed Epperly: I've been a part  back here in Boise of doing that. Not only internal to my program, our program, here that I'm the President and CEO of the entire healthcare system. But also to help a state grow multiple programs all across the state of Idaho. And that's been really tremendously rewarding. The Governor  put me in charge of leading healthcare transformation here in Idaho. I got to be the co-chair of a grant that we applied for and received, in the state of Idaho, $40 million  dollars from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, CMMI.\n\nTed Epperly: We put in place a four-year process of transforming the state's healthcare system. We put in place 165 patient-centered medical homes across the state. We transformed a lot of practices, helped them get EMRs, helped them connect to our state's health informatics system, and the Idaho Health Data Exchange. We put in place a community health worker program, and we worked on value-based payments and value-based contracting to help transform the value of primary care, family medicine in particular as the type of doctor that could care for these communities.\n\nTed Epperly: I've been fortunate to come back to a state that needed skills that I had around graduate medical education and healthcare transformation leadership that I got from the academy in the Affordable Care Act days to help do exactly those things in the state of Idaho and that's been tremendously rewarding.\n\nDaniel Ostergaard: I just remembered something additionally, Ted, that I wanted to ask you when you were still an academy official. So I'm going to do it right now. I have a memory that, well, you were board chair or president. I don't know which one. The Obama administration called a national conference of some kind at the White House conference on healthcare reform. And I remember it was televised live and I was watching it. And I remember that there was all kinds of important people in the room, including you and other specialty society leaders.\n\nDaniel Ostergaard: And then the president said, \"I would like to see if there's any comments from people in the audience.\" And the first person I'd like to call on is Dr. Ted Epperly.\" All the nations, if not international cameras pointed at you and I said, \"That's Ted\" and you answered. I can't remember exactly what he said, but answered quite well. Tell us about that. How did that feel?\n\nTed Epperly: I was totally surprised nobody had tipped me off this was coming, nobody! I don't think they knew. Nobody knew. It was President Obama who somehow had a registry of people he wanted to have comment on his presentation of the Affordable Care Act outline to the American public. This was the first called plan meeting of the President in the east room of the White House to announce the rollout of the plan for the Affordable Care Act that eventually became law. This was the kickoff for this. This was back in, I want to say 2008 or so. The bill eventually got passed in March of 2010.\n\nTed Epperly: So, this was the first rollout, he had a big thing in the east room. I mean, there were like 500 people including senators and representatives. Senator Ted Kennedy himself was there as he was in the process of dying. This meant a lot to Senator Kennedy and he got up off of his death bed to make it here for this event. There were all the dignitaries from the different nations, Secretary of HHS and from the AMA and the different nursing associations and different medical organizations. I was just pleased to be in the room. I was an invited guest and as the president of the AAFP, I was representing the academy. We had meetings beforehand and then we all gathered back and the President was making his address.\n\nTed Epperly: There was a whole wall of cameras and media, not only from our nation, but across the world that were watching this, so this is a big deal. I'll never forget. I was sitting about, oh, 10 feet from the president and off to his immediate right watching him talk and the whole bit and being very impressed with him as a person and an individual and for tackling this. I'll never forget him stopping, concluding, and the audience clapped. And he said, \"Now I want to have some comments from different people in the room. And he said for the very first one, I'm going to call on Dr. Ted Epperly, the President of the American Academy of Family Physicians.\"\n\nTed Epperly: I couldn't believe my ears. I thought, \"Geez, have I just kind of fallen asleep here and this is kind of a dream I'm at?\" And all of a sudden, my was heart was racing, I was a big runner at the time,so a resting heart rate for me was in the high 40s to low 50s. I felt my heart rate go to probably 180 and my blood pressure probably go from 110 over 60 to about 210 over 170 in about six seconds. I just remember the blood rushing to my brain and my heart pounding, and my adrenal glands on top of my kidneys squeezing out every ounce of epinephrine and norepinephrine and steroids that they could. It was shocking.\n\nTed Epperly: And he says, \"Ted, where are you?\" And so, I stand up. All of a sudden from behind me, they thrust a microphone into my hand so that I could speak into this for all the TV audience and all the people in the room. President Obama, standing looking at me from about 10 feet away, Dan, just like I'm looking at you right now. And so, that's the context of how this happened. I mean, I had no clue this was coming and I have to say right now, I really thank the academy for investing in all of us leaders with media training.\n\nTed Epperly: They do a lot with this in terms of how to craft a message, how to make sure it's clear and articulate how to get it across in three points. To be a credit to the academy and to family medicine for being able to handle a role like this. Here was a perfect example of why this became important because all of a sudden out of the blue, I'm getting asked on international TV and the president in the United States 10 feet away way to speak about the Affordable Care Act.\n\nDaniel Ostergaard: What did you say?\n\nTed Epperly: This is what I said. This was totally non-scripted. There was nothing that even prepared me for it. I said, \"President Obama, I want you to know on behalf of the American Academy of Family Physicians that we're totally with you. America's family medicine physicians are willing to roll up their shirt sleeves and do the best possible work to help roll out a healthcare system for all the people of this nation.\"\n\nTed Epperly: I said, \"President Obama, there's one thing we need your help with. We need to make sure we have more family medicine physicians trained for this country. We don't have enough at this point in time to be able to provide access to care to all the people in this nation, but we can do so together. We are with you 100% to make this work. It's the right thing for the people of this country. It's the right thing for our nation to accomplish. And we at the academy applaud you for these efforts.\" And that was it. And my 15 seconds of fame and glory passed and I passed the microphone. And Dan, that was that moment.\n\nDaniel Ostergaard: Oh, I remember it well. You did a great job. That was pretty exciting, even for us who were sitting at home watching on TV. Okay, so going back to the period of time after you had gone back to Boise, I want to check with you and see if there's any other time back in Boise in the last two years I should say where you've been called a Nazi, a communist, a socialist, and whatever other thing, bad thing? And that is regarding your role with the health department there and you're very, very vigorously standing up for the need for vaccination for all the residents of Idaho. And I remember seeing you on national TV again when the, I should say the crazies who don't believe in public health picketed your house. Talk about that.\n\nTed Epperly: I will. Thank you for bringing that up. Yeah, it's one of the damnedest things I've ever seen, quite frankly. In 2006, the Central District Health Department, which is our four-county area for public health reached out to me and asked me to be their physician member on their board of directors. There's only one physician member for the four counties and for whatever reason they liked me and had heard of me and they asked me to do it and I was honored to do so.\n\nTed Epperly: I'd done quite a bit of community public health in the military as well. Being a well-trained family medicine doctor, you take a lot of interest in communities health and the public's health. So, I was more than happy to do that, and everything was going just marvelous. And for 15 years prior, I helped the state of Idaho and our health district with a lot of different things around public health, from infectious disease outbreaks to tackling obesity and diabetes and mental illness and depression and suicide, and all the issues that come tantamount to public health. And then of course, in early part of 2020, the pandemic started and all of a sudden, all of the public health departments across this nation got thrust into the limelight.\n\nTed Epperly: These organizations are usually pretty invisible to the public. In fact, they don't even know they exist unless something's going wrong in the community. Well, during the pandemic, it became very clear with the spread of the virus, that we needed to take rapid action. We needed to take rapid action to both isolate individuals that were at risk and to help close down different public places that were high risk for super spreading events.\n\nTed Epperly: We needed to get the public to start wearing masks. This was back before vaccines were even a reality yet. There was a lot of work being done with the Warp Speed project to get vaccines developed, but that was still 10 months to a year out. So, the early days of the pandemic were all around helping educate the public around the need for masking, the need for social distancing, the need for good hand washing and the need to potentially close down high risk places.\n\nTed Epperly: We knew from early days of tracing and tracking that certain bars and gymnasiums were high risk places. So we closed them. We had the authority by public health law to do so. And so in the early days, even though we tried to educate the public around this and to help them understand the reason we were doing this was to protect the greater number of people in the public that were at risk of this, there was a growing amount of pushback, especially I think in red Republican states like Idaho is.\n\nTed Epperly: People started to adopt the attitude that this wasn't a public health emergency. This isn't anything more than the common cold that's spreading across the nation and why is it that we're being forced and mandated against our wishes and will to be told that we had to wear these masks and that schools needed to be closed and that bars and gyms needed to be closed? So there was growing sentiment.\n\nTed Epperly: And one thing we write about this in the book quite a bit, was the role of social media. Social media fragmented this nation along with the President of the United States, Donald Trump, and his messaging, right from the get go. Trump did not support the effort around public health and prevention for this pandemic. In fact, he ridiculed and criticized it so that we had a divided public, right from the get go, from the President and social media, then to divide the public into camps on this issue. Those that believed that public health was important in controlling this outbreak and a camp of people who thought it was a joke and ridiculed it.\n\nTed Epperly: And in my conservative part of the United States here in Idaho, very independent, libertarian type of place, there was growing sentiment that the public health department was way overreacting and way overreaching. \"Who are these people? they said, that would try to control us. And I kid you not, in the course of two weeks I got over 5,000 emails, I was interviewed multiple times on TV. and I was again, hit for the cycle in being called a socialist, a fascist, a Nazi, and a communist. And I actually added another couple to the collection, I was called the devil, I was called Satan incarnate and, \"Who are you to do this? Who are you to try to control us?\"\n\nTed Epperly: And one of the nights of our public health meeting, we met weekly during the pandemic in the early phases because we had a lot of work to do to try to get this thing under as best  control as we can. I'm sitting right where I am right now, talking to you at my house, in my remote office. The meeting started at five o'clock and I heard all this banging and clattering, and lights being flashed through the windows at my home and strobe lights pulsing through our windows..\n\nTed Epperly: And I went over to the window and looked out and low and behold out on the street in front of my house were about 20- 25 people, using garbage  can lids as symbols and beating on buckets, having bullhorns ,shouting all sorts of obscenities and comments and shining these lights through our windows. And not only was it happening at my house, but was happening at least one of the other members of our board, one of our county commissioner's homes at the same time.\n\nTed Epperly: She was stuck at the courthouse and her children were there in her home, alone. She broke down in tears, had to leave the meeting to go get them, to secure them, to make sure they were safe, nobody was going to try to enter their home. My home was physically assaulted, they came up and banged on the doors. I wasn't sure if they were going to try to come in, I don't know if they had weapons or not. Weapons are not uncommon here in Idaho and it was an unsavory and unsafe situation.\n\nTed Epperly: The Boise Chief of Police and Boise Mayor called the meeting off. Not only were there protestors at our house, but they were outside of the public health department building armed with guns, about 400 of them. They had snipers posted on the roofs of the buildings around the public health department by the police anticipating that there could be armed conflict. Because of all of this, they shut the whole meeting down and the protestors got the message that they'd shut it down and they left.\n\nTed Epperly: For two weeks my home was monitored by the police. The FBI got involved as well because there was report of there being interstate collaboration and coordination of this activity in Idaho. We have a lot of militia groups and paramilitary groups here in Idaho and apparently, they got activated, which is what activated the FBI. So for two weeks after this, my home was closely watched. Thank God and knock-on wood, nothing further came of that. But Dan, it brings up a couple points I think is important to share at this moment in time for posterity, for future listeners.\n\nTed Epperly: And that is that we all, especially as family medicine doctors, have a role to play in stepping up for the public's best interests. Sometimes that's not comfortable work. Sometimes it can be dangerous work, but it needs to be done. In the face of a pandemic, we must speak to both science and data and what it shows us. We can't run from that obligation, no matter what the risk is.\n\nTed Epperly: I think in some ways I was well prepared to do this because of my military time, because of my time in a war, because of my time as being the MASH emergency room doctor. I knew what conflict was like. I could stand in there and take it. I also thank the academy for this because I knew what it was like to stand in front of a group of people and to speak the truth and to take the insults and to take the ridicule from doing what I thought was the right thing.\n\nTed Epperly: So it's interesting and I'm glad you brought it up because it brings to light everything that we've talked about in my past life to be able to put in the moment, in the pandemic now, on the public health department board, a different role, but similar circumstances for the good of the public.\n\nDaniel Ostergaard: Yeah. That's quite a story too. Thank you so much for that Ted. Going to switch gears a little, unless you have anything more to say about that because we're at the beginning of the third year of the pandemic now, and clearly across the entire United States there is a similar demographic to that which you described, which is the people who are not vaccinated and largely dying are in great numbers those in red Republican areas as opposed to those who believe in public health.\n\nDaniel Ostergaard: So I guess you were a microcosm, perhaps a more conservative microcosm of the whole country. But switching gears, I'd like to ask you to comment on some people and I'll throw out the names and just give us a thought or two. You mentioned General Mike Scotti, a family doctor, former speaker of the academy, Congress of Delegates. You mentioned him. What about him?\n\nTed Epperly: Yeah, Mike, and I put Bob Higgins, a retired Admiral from the Navy  and a family medicine doctor, in the same boat. These were two mentors for me as a young family medicine physician growing through the system. I saw them take leadership roles, both with the academy and my time with the Congress and I wanted to be like them. I felt that they had a wonderful presence about them and helped lead the academy at an important time. They were both marvelous human beings.\n\nTed Epperly: And so, both in Mike Scotti and Bob Higgins, I saw a potential path for me as a military family medicine physician to potentially serve the academy in roles like that. I got to know both of them well. I've heard both of them speak at different conferences that I've either been a part of or graduation events and got to know both of them well as friends, as mentors.\n\nTed Epperly: And both Jay Fogarty's and Jeannette South-Paul's name come up too. We all need mentors and we should all in return be mentors for others. They were for me, all four of those. They helped my career a lot. They helped me shape values and principles. They believed in me sometimes when I didn't believe in myself. They always kind of pushed me forward and I think that was really important and it's part of, I think, the wonder of, again, our family medicine community is to have people like that that are constantly helping one another grow.\n\nDaniel Ostergaard: Well, I think it's fantastic that you and the others that you just mentioned and whom I mentioned are family medicines and leadership in the military. And just for the record, we lost Mike Scotti a few years ago. He did pass away, but Bob Higgins, Jay Fogerty, Jeannette South-Paul, and I can't remember who else you mentioned, they're all doing well and you are too. So we're happy about that. Okay. All right. The name I'm going to throw out now is not known to anybody that's watching this except back in Boise. What about Jim Blackman and what about Signe Blackman?\n\nTed Epperly: Yes. Jim and Signe Blackman were a remarkable family medicine couple. Jim was the program director at the same program I came to here in Boise, which is a very well known, well respected family medicine residency program. Jim really started to put our program on the map. This was back in the mid '90s while I was finishing up my military career and retired in 2001. Jim stepped out of this role to take on a larger role with the University of Washington as the network director for the WWAMI system, which stands for Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho.\n\nTed Epperly: Jim was very instrumental in getting medical education at the medical student level really going in the state. And of course was a program director of our GME program here. So, Jim was very involved with medical education and helped get Wyoming started and brought into the WWAMI system as well, Jim did a lot.\n\nTed Epperly: His former wife was Signe Blackman and she was our chief nursing officer. Signe was just a remarkable human being, kind, compassionate, humanistic. She was one of the most important people here when I started. In fact, it was because of Signe that I kind of sealed the deal for me wanting to come here. I said, \"Gee, if I can work with people like Signe Blackman at the Family Medicine Residency of Idaho, I'm all in.\" She was just that kind of spirit.\n\nTed Epperly: And so Signe worked as our chief nursing officer here for 17 of my 20 years that I've been here and she just retired just a couple years ago. And so Jim and Signe Blackman have a very special place both in my heart, but in the history of this program.\n\nDaniel Ostergaard: Well, in case they watch this, I need to say for the record they were, and are I guess, very, very good friends of ours when we were all together in Duluth, Minnesota, in the '70s and early '80s. So I've kept up with their career and they're both, I agree, wonderful people. Okay. One more at least, Doug Henley.\n\nTed Epperly: I think the world of Doug. Doug of course, is no stranger to the people watching these videos and this oral history. Doug is the former CEO of the American Academy of Family Physicians. When I was just brand new in the AAFP, I think I had just been the president or I was the president of the Uniform Services Academy of Family Physician, which represented all the military family doctors, which there were about 1200-1500 of us. There were a lot in the three services.\n\nTed Epperly: I came to one of my first congresses and I saw Doug Henley being sworn in as the president of the AAFP. That was my first contact with Doug. I was very impressed with Doug and his leadership. So it was joy when I found my way back to the academy on the board of directors that Doug was in the position now of being the executive director, which evolved into the CEO of the academy.\n\nTed Epperly: Doug was a very instrumental, positive force on my development. I wanted to be like Doug too, to be articulate, well read, well spoken, well respected. I think Doug has the heart that many of us as family medicine doctors have, one of compassion, one of greater interest for the public good, of trying to be a force of change for good. I was pleased to have Doug as a key thought partner, as we moved forward on the board years, as well as into the academy leadership role.\n\nTed Epperly: And I might just say that the rest of the academy staff  were like that. The vice presidents were all just high quality people. I think many of us wouldn't have chosen this path if the academy didn't have its leadership team like it did. It was just a pleasure to be a part of this. And Doug was certainly the leader of that group.\n\nDaniel Ostergaard: Well, we have to wrap here pretty soon and I'll ask you a couple of closing questions, but before that, I would like you to tell us about your wife Lindy and of what is she a national champion?\n\nTed Epperly: Yes. My wife of now coming up on 48 years, was the national champion of the Australian Shepherd Herding trials in the United States. Her passion and one of her gifts is not only to be a wonderful spouse and a wonderful mother, but a wonderful person working with animals. I think she would've been a marvelous veterinarian, but she opted to kind of serve our family if you will. We have a small farm here in Boise, five acres, and she started herding with Australian Shepherds back in Georgia in the military days and she's just been bitten by that bug. It's her passion.\n\nTed Epperly: So Australian Shepherds just like Border Collies are the two premier types of dogs that herd different animals. A lot of animals can be herded as groups, cows, sheep, ducks, geese, goats, other animals will kind of clump together and move together. There's a real skill in being able to move them around a course. So, you set up gates, you take them out of a pen, you move them across this course through gates, and it all gets timed. You have to have meticulous working relationship with your dog. They react to different signals, to go left, to go right, to stop, to speed up. It's almost like moving a bubble. You can just imagine this bubble being moved around through a course and the dog has to be in certain positions at certain times to get the bubble to move with these animals in it.\n\nTed Epperly: And so for Lindy that is her passion and she was good enough at it to become the national champion in the duck category. She's extremely proud of that and has a big award for it. Sadly, the pandemic has taken the wind out of our current champion dogs sails, because they've kind of shut down all of the events over the last couple years because of the pandemic and right when our current Australian Shepherd, Star, is  her name, very aptly named, was right at the pinnacle of her career.\n\nTed Epperly: I think Lindy probably could have continued to be the national champion for all the animals for probably the last couple years if the pandemic hadn't come.\n\nDaniel Ostergaard: Well, I've always been intrigued hearing her talk about that hobby. Thanks, Ted for that. And thanks to Lindy. So what of all of these things you've talked about, and even if it's not one you've talked about, do you feel gave you the most satisfaction? And there probably too many dimensions so pick one.\n\nTed Epperly: Wow. That's a tough one. I think the thing that pops into my mind the most vividly, Dan, with your question is my time here in Boise , Idaho at the Family Medicine Residency of Idaho , now known as Full Circle Health and the substantial positive change and growth we have made to grow our programs here to four family medicine residencies, one pediatric residency, and six fellowship programs. We also were able to convert ourselves to become a Federally Qualified Health Center and one of the first eleven Teaching Health Centers in the United States with 10 clinic sites and now a total of 14 accredited educational programs. By achieving this we have trained over 500 physicians and counting and served millions of patients over the years.  I would say secondly, the Affordable Care Act. I think the time with the academy to help achieve something of this substance for this many people is right up there as well.  Coming really close to that, and this is now on a professional side not a family side, because being a father and having two great sons and a wonderful wife is certainly right up there too. But professionally, I think probably right next to these items and ranking third would be the creation and the architect of  the 10-year Graduate Medical Education plan in the state of Idaho has become really important. Idaho ranked 50th of 50 in States for its GME resident to population ratio. So putting in place that will grow the number of GME programs in Idaho from 9 programs to over 25 programs in 10 to 12 years is a big deal.\n\nTed Epperly: I would lump maybe fourth my time in the military and all the things I did and being a part of those things was really important as well. One thing that I might add in closing was that I'm a pretty reflective guy and it helps me when I've been through a lot to write things. So I was able to write two books. The first one around our broken healthcare system called Fractured: America's Broken Health Care System and What We Must Do to Heal It.\n\nTed Epperly: It was very cathartic, for me to take all the experience of the academy and all the things we were trying to do with changing the healthcare system and write that into a book. It helped me bring a closure to that chapter if you will and to be able to move on. I did something similar with the pandemic. The pandemic was pretty intense, as we talked about. So I was able with a colleague of mine, a CEO of a hospital system, the largest in our state here in Boise, St. Luke's is the name of the system, to write a book on the pandemic as well, called Preparing for the Next Global Outbreak – A Planning Guide From the School House to the White House.\n\nTed Epperly: And that's the book you alluded to that will be published by Johns Hopkins University Press and will come out in the Fall of 2022. And it was another way, to put on paper and to work through as in a catharsis almost all the intensity of these experiences so that it could hopefully be educational for people to learn from.\n\nTed Epperly: I've been able to close the loops on a couple of things too. So to your question, I would say the Affordable Care Act, the 10-year GME plan, my time in the military, the pandemic, and then being able to put the bookends on both of those with books has been a good way for me to bring closure to them.\n\nDaniel Ostergaard: Well, the health policy book is called Fractured. What is the name of the Hopkins book on the pandemic?\n\nTed Epperly: Preparing for the Next Pandemic.\n\nDaniel Ostergaard: Preparing for the Next Pandemic. I do have to ask you one more name and that is Cal Gutkin, because you've been all over the world and both you and I have worked very closely with the College of Family Physicians of Canada and Cal absolutely loved Fractured. And he talked about it to me the other day. Tell me what do you think of Cal Gutkin and then we're going to run out of time.\n\nTed Epperly: I love Cal Gutkin. In one word, love, is the right word. He is a very special person. For those of you listening that don't know Cal Gutkin, he stands about 5 ft 6, he's like mighty mouse, he is full of energy, unbelievably intelligent, has a great wit and a sense of humor. Dan, I know you really enjoy Cal as do many of the academy leadership who got to know him, he is like a soulmate to me. We're kind of two peas in a pod, him on Canada's side, me on the U.S. side. I can't tell you how many emails we've shared over the years, especially through the pandemic and the Trump years, in terms of both joys and frustrations.\n\nTed Epperly: He's just a marvelous, marvelous, human being. And quite frankly, one of the real gifts of the academy and why I would encourage anybody to run for these positions is because of the relationships and opportunities and experiences you get. One of real opportunities was to meet people like Cal Gutkin. Cal who was the Doug Henley equivalent in Canada, their executive director of the Canadian Academy of Family Physicians, was just a superb human being. I count him even at this time in my life as one of the closest friends I have of all the friends I've met.\n\nDaniel Ostergaard: Well, that last comment was from our interviewee, Dr. Ted Epperly, who commented on the immediate past CEO of the College of Family Physicians of Canada, Dr. Cal Gutkin, and appropriately so, because we work binationally in so many ways. Thank you so much, Ted. I very much enjoyed talking with you.\n\nTed Epperly: Me too, Dan. I very much [inaudible","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2376/collection_resources/160197/file/291686#t=3859.0,6844.0"},{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2376/collection_resources/160197/file/291686/transcript/84354/annotation/4","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"] It's great to walk down memory lane like this, thank you. And to all the listeners out there that hear this, I would want you to recognize that there is great opportunity in taking some steps forward at times of need and answering the question like my wife posed to me, \"So what are you going to do about it?\" There are ways to take those steps forward to make differences happen, and I'd leave you with that thought. Thank you, Dan.\n\nDaniel Ostergaard: Thank you, Ted.\n\nPART 4 OF 4 ENDS","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2376/collection_resources/160197/file/291686#t=6844.0,6880.0"},{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2376/collection_resources/160197/file/291686/transcript/84354/annotation/5","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2376/collection_resources/160197/file/291686#t=6880.0,6875.48"}]},{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2376/collection_resources/160197/file/291686/transcript/84355","type":"AnnotationPage","label":{"en":["Description of Ted Epperly Interview [Transcript]"]},"items":[{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2376/collection_resources/160197/file/291686/transcript/84355/annotation/6","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Interviewee: Ted Epperly, MD\n\nInterviewer: Daniel Ostergaard, MD\n\nDate: February 24, 2022\n\nTed Epperly, M. D., is a man who has served his country and its people well. In reply to the question about what has given him the most satisfaction, he answered, “the Affordable Care Act, Idaho’s 10-year GME (Graduate Medical Education) Plan, time in the military, the COVID Pandemic, and …(his two) books.” \n\nAs a senior leader in the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), he made 18 trips to Washington, D.C., to testify for President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act. He spoke with almost every AAFP state organization and thousands of doctors. He addressed the importance of using a team-based approach that family medicine doctors could deliver to the proposed system. This healthcare transformation experience along with his graduate medical education has been invaluable as he has directed Idaho’s 10-year GME plan to improve the state’s healthcare system. In his 20th year as Program Director and CEO at the Family Medicine Residency in Boise, Idaho, he has also been instrumental in its progress. Full Circle Health, a federally funded health center, is now one of the first 11 teaching health centers in the U.S. It includes ten clinic sites, 14 accredited educational programs, five residency programs and seven fellowships. \n\nPrior to returning to his home state of Idaho, Dr. Epperly, a retired full colonel in the US Army, served for 21 years. During the Gulf War, he was Chief of Emergency Medicine at the 2nd MASH Army Medical Surgical Hospital. From 1991 to 1994 at USUHS, part of his duties included working with the staff of President George HW Bush and President Bill Clinton. He was also Department Chairman of Family Medicine at the Eisenhower Army Medical Center in Augusta, Georgia. And, he was elected President of the Uniform Services Academy of Family Physicians. \n\nDuring the COVID Pandemic, his efforts were directed to educating the public about the importance of safety measures. As a member of the Idaho Central District Health Department Board of Directors, he often worked against opposition to prompt the necessity of the public health centers’ directives. As a result of this experience, he wrote “Preparing For The Next Global Outbreak: A Planning Guide From The School House To The White House.” He has co-authored a second book, “Fractured: America’s Broken Health Care System and What We Must Do To Heal It.”","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2376/collection_resources/160197/file/291686#t=0.0,6875.48"}]}]}]}