Page 18 - DMN2Q21

burning out beforehand. So we have to be ready. We have to provide care, support, and a framework for recovery.
Fortunately, the Wayne County Medical Society already has a plan in place for physician wellness. So what’s next for us as an organization is moving that plan forward and ensuring each and every local physician is aware of it.
In fact, our society has the power to support its members with a good many things, if we nurture it and let it nurture us. Membership here is not just another set of responsibilities that take us away from our regular work with our patients. Instead, it is a way of connecting with one another—truly, it takes one physician to perfectly understand the challenges experienced by another, particularly now.
The Wayne County Medical Society is what we create it to be and right now, it’s here to provide strong support and professional resources to its members during a time of crisis. We can share the practices that are saving us time and energy and renewing us in our commitment to our patients, our communities and the greater good.
I invite you to use the assets our society has to offer you, and to tell your colleagues about them. I want us to be connected to the health authorities in our communities, chief staff officer or CEO of the health care systems and even to our civic and local philanthropic executives.
We need to ensure they are aware of our work within the community, so they can rely upon us for advice and support. Those two-way relationships are going to be essential to strengthen public health for all of us and the people we serve.
I also want to focus on transparency, communication and collaboration between Michigan State Medical Society and Wayne County Medical Society. By working more seamlessly together—as two unique but highly collaborative partners—we can avoid redundancy, shape stronger public health policies, and be robust influencers of our entire state’s health outcomes.
One of my goals for this year is to cement those relationships and engage multiple sessions with the staff and leadership of the Michigan State Medical Society. Working together, we can focus on improving legislative and lawmaker communication.
We have seen what can happen when we collaborate effectively. We have been successful working on Health
Can’t Wait, surprise billing, and prior authorization, which offer stronger ways forward for the entire state. This has been a great success for us and bodes well for our future work with the Michigan State Medical Society.
And now, we have continuing opportunities to effect positive outcomes through not only our legal and legislative work, but also through our resolutions. By adopting aspirational statements of belief, public health goals, and other clear resolutions on behalf of the people of our community, we can present a united force for good. Ultimately our resolutions can be moved forward to the state and even the American Medical Association and become part of our shared standards of practice.
Every bit as important as our resolutions work, is the work that comes out of our public health committee. As we consider and learn from the COVID-19 pandemic, the vaccination hesitancy and other related issues, our public health committee must continue its involvement very aggressively in the year ahead.
That brings me full circle. As we begin our work on all the many items I’ve listed in this brief address, it’s imperative that I offer my sincere thanks to all of you, and to the board that voted for me and trusted me to begin the work that lies ahead. And of course, I offer my sincere thanks to our administration, Karen Carter and Rachael Miksys. Again, my thanks to Dr. Steven Daveluy and to my family and my wife Ziba, whose support has been so incredibly valuable.
I look forward to a great year at your side, and am tremendously excited about all we are going to accomplish together.
18 Detroit Medical News
Second Quarter 2021