A Letter from Your Chapter President January 29, 2009 Dear Colleague, The year since I became Governor of the New Mexico Chapter of the ACC has been, as you know, associated with no chapter initiatives and almost the same amount of communication. This first letter to membership will hopefully be of the “better late than never” variety, and is the first of regular communications to help us become connected and to interact for mutual benefit. We have challenges in our College and in medicine in general and we will want our voices to be heard and to be among the best educated about the issues rather than the least. My message today will give you an idea of what I believe should be among the foci of our group’s efforts. The 18th, 19th and early 20th Century traditions of the local or regional medical societies served the important functions of allowing practitioners to discuss new knowledge, compare ways to treat difficult cases, and have political influence for the benefit of their patients and themselves. Friendships were also formed with others involved in the experience that encompasses the practice of the art of medicine. To some extent, county and state medical societies still attempt to provide such fora, but during my three and a half decades in medicine, most of the discussions have centered almost exclusively on medical economics, both the patients’ and ours. While our concerns about our own financial issues are just as legitimate and important as those in any other occupation, there will be pressures in the very near future to show that we are fully and honestly engaged in the process to improve health care delivery for everyone, a process in which no one will be unaffected. Dr. Doug Weaver’s President’s Address at last year’s ACC Convocation emphasized that these changes are coming, and the recent national election, choice of leadership for HHS and assessment of strengths and weaknesses in processes of care are the signposts pointing to these changes. We have enormous opportunities in this maelstrom to act as innovators and ombudsmen, but making income protection the dominate issue of our recommendations will label us as nothing but a trade union and cost us dearly in public opinion, which at present is still in our favor. These opportunities will be minimized and our risks greater if we are perceived as being focused on maximization and protection of incomes which are generally multiples of those expected by the large majority of people in the best of times in our society. Our major advantages include our people. With the efforts of Dr. Weaver, Dr. Schauer and the other members of national ACC leadership, we have the benefit of knowledge of high level government planning and we still have a place at the table. We have in our state society physicians, midlevel practitioners and supporting staff who have genius, energy and philanthropic spirits going beyond self interest. We are by nature achievers who habitually look for ways to contribute and improve life for others as well as ourselves and I believe the potential for advancement of these goals within our society is excellent. My aim is to serve the New Mexico ACC membership as a gatherer of ideas and concerns, but especially of recommendations for ways to beneficially affect the health of people who live here and depend upon us. This clearly helps us as well. Initial recommendations for each of us: *Begin to note how care delivery is accomplished not just in your office, but in your region, assessing strengths and weaknesses. We employ diverse systems from rural to urban, all of which are critical to care in this state. *Accumulate demographic information regarding how cardiac and other care is paid for in your part of the state. Insurance companies have some of these data, but they will clearly vary from more to less affluent areas. *Do what you can to encourage membership in ACC by non-participating cardiologists, midlevels, CCU nurses and administrators, so our influence can expand. *Express your concerns and recommendations to me or to the national office directly, so those responsible for interaction with national policy makers can know what’s important to us in New Mexico. *Attend local and state medical society and other group meetings to be informed about directions being taken in those groups with regard to ways to improve and pay for care delivery. Our tentative time for a state ACC meeting is late spring, and our speaker(s) will likely be from our national office and/or governmental policy group. *Look for ways in your own practice to act as ombudsmen for your patients in their dealings with third party payers as well as agencies available to support indigent care. Both patients and physicians benefit from this activity. *Be sure to communicate what works and what does not work based upon your investigations to the rest of us through email or calling me. *Finally, a new survey is in the works and will be slanted toward the issues listed above, in addition to the usual personal concerns which remain critical to us as well. Please know the information from this exercise will go to national leadership and does not die in your computer. Only 17 of 110 active members responded to Dr. Schauer’s last survey in 2006. I look forward to hearing from you. American national health policy may well be shaped without us in the end, but let’s be sure New Mexico has clearly been heard. Sincerely, Michael R. McGuire, MD, FACC Email: mikeandj2@comcast.net Cell: 505-850-7051 “For better or worse, there are few occupations of a more satisfying character than the practice of medicine, if a man can but once get oriented and bring to it the philosophy of honest work, the philosophy which insists that we are here, not to get all we can out of the life about us, but to see how much we can add to it.” ON THE EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF THE MEDICAL SOCIETY Centennial Celebration of the New Haven Medical Association, New Haven, 1903. Sir William Osler