Atkinson Family Practice

09/09/2025

Dr Kate is excited to share that our new therapist Paul Krepel has begun at AFP. Paul is a licensed Marriage and Family therapist with over 35 years of experience doing solution-focused work with patients of all ages

Welcome Paul!!

09/05/2025

Back By popular demand!
we are offering our Better Bones virtual class series again.
For people with Osteoporosis or
Osteopenia this 4 week course reviews
Up-To-Date information on how to interpret your Bone Density results and calculate your risk factors, review science-based recommendations for nutrition, exercise, supplements and prescription treatments
There is plenty of time to answer individual questions during each class

09/04/2025

AFP is accepting new patients of all ages. Just complete the new patient paperwork on our web site

We're Atkinson Family Practice, your trusted family medicine center in Amherst and Northampton. Connect with family medicine specialists for your healthcare.

09/04/2025

Massachusetts will have the new Covid vaccine available liberally and covered by insurance!!
AFP will have ours soon—hang tight. We will announce it

Covid Vaccine Boston Globe Article 9/3/25.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/video/2025/09/04/metro/politics/massachusetts-becomes-first-state-to-dictate-its-own-vaccine-coverage-rules-maura-healey-announces/

COVID boosters are to be widely available in Massachusetts, Healey orders

In anticipation of federal restrictions on COVID booster shots, Governor Maura Healey on Wednesday essentially wrote a prescription for COVID boosters for every person in the state over the age of 5.

The standing order authorized pharmacists to administer four different types of booster shots and overruled in Massachusetts an FDA approval that limited use of the boosters to people over the age of 65 and those with medical conditions that put them at high risk of severe COVID infections. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory committee is scheduled to meet Sept. 18 and is expected to issue similar recommendations for booster shots.

Healey’s order is the latest in an ongoing process meant to give Massachusetts independence from federal health guidelines, which many local and national experts now consider unreliable.

The governor has submitted to the legislature two proposals that would give the state health commissioner more authority to ensure access to vaccines for children.

“No matter what happens with [Robert F. Kennedy Jr.] and the federal government, we are going to make sure vaccines remain available in Massachusetts,” Healey said in a statement Wednesday. “We are working to ensure that all pharmacies make the vaccine available as soon as possible.”

Healey has also touted the state as a leader in an effort to create a regional public health collaboration with other Northeast states, including every New England state except New Hampshire, that would rely on medical societies rather than the CDC for guidance in establishing vaccination policies. On Wednesday, California, Washington, and Oregon announced the creation of a similar “health alliance” to shape immunization policies for those three states.
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Wendy Parmet, a law professor at Northeastern University who specializes in public health, welcomed the standing order. Until the state issued it, she said, Massachusetts – despite its reputation for being at the vanguard in public health – was making it hard if not impossible for people to get the new booster approved by the FDA.

As she herself found out when she tried to get the booster the past few days, she said, primary care doctors have largely shunted responsibility for administering COVID shots to pharmacies, because physicians are swamped with patients seeking other care. But the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Pharmacy forbids pharmacists from administering COVID shots without the authorization of a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention panel.

“If you can’t get it at a pharmacy and you can’t get it at a doctor’s office, you can’t get it,” said Parmet, who was eligible for the shot because she is over the age of 65.

Not only did the state say that pharmacists could now administer the booster shots without the CDC panel’s authorization, Parmet noted, the Healey administration broadened the group of people who could receive it. .

“What they’re trying to do is increase accessibility beyond what the FDA envisioned or suggested,” she said. “This looks like it’s going to address the problem and reassert our leadership in public health.”

The governor’s standing order authorized pharmacists to administer two Moderna booster vaccines: mNEXSPIKE for people 12 and older and Spikevax for people 5 and older. It also authorized Pfizer’s Comirnaty for people five and older and Novavax’s Nuvaxoid for people 12 and older.

Children younger than 5 typically receive vaccines at their pediatrician’s offices.

Massachusetts is requiring insurers to heed state guidance on which vaccines they will cover, the latest in a series of moves from Governor Maura Healey.

09/04/2025

We will be able to give Covid vaccines soon in our office?
Adult flu already available

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19eb2KxMhR/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Gov. Maura T. Healey said in a statement that her administration is working to make the vaccines available quickly at the state’s pharmacies.

09/02/2025

Got their books and tongue depressors

09/02/2025

Happy Anniversay to Jess who has been our Biller at AFP for 10 years now!!

09/02/2025

We have flushots. Both offices for adult and Seniors
(19 and younger still pending—we will let you know)

09/02/2025

At AFP we try to stay cutting edge with science and recommendations for our patients. We dont simply look at cholesterol numbers—we look at inflammatory markers to help guide treatment decisions. This recent study confirms our approach:

Inflammation Comparable To High LDL Cholesterol As A Heart Disease Risk Factor In Healthy Women,

study presented Friday at the European Society of Cardiology Congress “revealed that inflammation was comparable to high LDL cholesterol as a heart disease risk factor” in women who otherwise seem like they are healthy. The new findings “indicate that inflammation should be included in heart disease screenings, Ridker said.” The study was also published in the European Heart Journal.

09/02/2025

09/02/2025

Menopausal Hormone treatment may improve memory.
Estradiol-Based Hormone Therapy Associated With Higher Memory Scores In Cognitively Normal Postmenopausal Women,

a study suggests that “cognitively normal postmenopausal women who used estradiol-based hormone therapy had higher memory scores than their counterparts who didn’t.” Researchers observed that “compared with those who never had menopausal hormone therapy, postmenopausal women who used transdermal estradiol had higher episodic memory scores, while those who took oral estradiol had better prospective memory scores.” Furthermore, “earlier age at menopause was associated with lower cognitive scores across all three domains tested – episodic memory, prospective memory, and executive function. Neither transdermal nor oral estradiol use was associated with executive function.” The study was published in Neurology

Background and ObjectivesMenopause and menopausal hormone therapy (MHT) affect cognition, although existing studies are inconclusive. Age-related declines in executive functions, episodic memory, and prospective memory may be differentially sensitive to ...