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communicate that vaccines are safe, effective, and capable of bringing our society back to a more ordinary way of functioning.
In fact, I believe the COVID-19 vaccines have been
caught up in a perfect storm of political polarization
and instability, health disparities among different socio- economic groups, racial discrimination, and more. As physicians, we have begun to recognize the harm of such divisive discourse in our state and nation. But I’m sure our profession is strong enough to stay together, offer balanced, common-sense leadership, and solve these problems in partnership with the communities we serve. It is our unity that gives us strength in a world that is so fractured and divided today.
While COVID-19 must clearly be our continuing top priority as an organization during my time as your president, I’d like to define for us a wider set of goals, which we can measure and work on together.
First, it is essential for our organization to take the lead on boosting health equity in our region. Right now, there are simply too many disparities in the ways in which people from different socioeconomic backgrounds experience their health care.
For example, right here in Wayne County, infant mortality is more than twice as prevalent in African-American population as compared to white people. Black people
are 2.1 times more likely than white people to die from COVID-19. And numerous other conditions—from heart disease and stroke to cancer and HIV/AIDS—also show huge differences based on race.
This is not acceptable, and this must be our first priority during the coming year. We must ensure that every person is welcomed, included and valued no matter where they come from, what their incomes are, or what they look
like. And as a medical society, we must work to serve as informed community partners who advocate for people that currently don’t have access to quality healthcare.
Similarly, we must focus on our county’s status relative to the social determinants of health. Of all the regions of the state, it seems ours has the most work to do. From food insecurity to education and employment, from housing and wage gaps to transportation and socialization, if we can nurture an environment wherein all Wayne County residents have access to the tools they need to thrive as human beings then we will have been extremely successful.
This means that we, as physicians, must leave our offices and begin working with other community and
government organizations to deliver the things our patients need. Perhaps we can partner with a local school to deliver programs that inform and educate children
and teens about what’s needed to grow up healthy. Maybe we’re coordinating with local grocers and support facilities to help ensure they’re stocking healthy, nutritious food.
Or maybe we’re sharing resources—both financial and informational—to ensure all local residents can make good choices with respect to housing, education, and more.
As physician experts, we can play our important role in our society as the advocates for patients and for our community.
A third goal for our society—one that actually is very dear to my heart—is physician wellness. We have been working on this project for almost two years, and it’s time to take our work to the next level.
As physicians, we have been experiencing an extraordinary amount of stress. Many of us were already burned out before COVID. And of course, because of our responsibility as physicians, we forgot about ourselves and we put on our shoes and started working harder than ever during the COVID-19 pandemic.
So, I predict that when COVID starts to slow for real, we’re going to start seeing an array of physical and emotional symptoms among all these physicians who were already
Second Quarter 2021
Detroit Medical News 17
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