Prasad Acharya, MD, MPH, MBA, FACPM
Chair, ACPM Membership Committee
Take this 2-minute survey to help shape Communities of Practice (CoPs) at ACPM — whether as a founding member or senior advisor.
You chose Preventive Medicine for a reason — maybe to work upstream on root causes, to bring evidence to improving outcomes at scale, to harness technology and innovation, or to address the health of whole populations. For most of us, it was a mix of these interests that drew us in. And whatever brought you here, you’re not alone. There are others at ACPM who share your orientation to the work.
Yet despite this shared sense of purpose, you know that feeling where you meet someone at a conference doing similar work and exchange ideas about collaborating…but then what? There’s not much structure to keep that momentum going. Or there’s work you want to do with others in the field, but no clear home for that collaboration.
Preventive Medicine is a broad field, and while that breadth is a strength, it means the colleagues doing work closest to yours can be surprisingly hard to stay connected with. And in a moment when our field faces both challenges and opportunities that require collective action, those connections matter more than ever.
Introducing Communities of Practice
That’s what we’re trying to solve with Communities of Practice. It’s a pilot of member-led spaces organized around shared focus areas within Preventive Medicine and public health. Each CoP will have a charter, identified leadership, and specific goals — with tangible outputs that may include best practice guidelines, educational and mentoring resources, policy briefs, and conference programming. The College supports the infrastructure, amplifies your work, and helps translate your contributions into impact for the field. This is how we turn shared interest into real progress.
We’re piloting a small number of CoPs now, with founding members shaping what each becomes. At PM26, we’ll formally launch and open the doors wider. And as we learn what works, we’ll create pathways for members to propose and build new communities around the areas that matter most to them.
Two Ways to Get Involved
- Founding members who will actively shape these communities from the ground up — collaborating on goals, creating outputs, and helping us figure out what works.
- Senior leaders who can provide guidance, expertise, and strategic direction as these communities take shape.
Whatever your interest or availability, we’d love to hear from you. Fill out the brief survey and we’ll follow up individually to explore the best fit.
Thank you for your commitment to advancing the work that matters to you and keeping our field vital.
