Posted by anjali on Saturday, December 29, 2007 at 1:05 pm
“We are the ones we have been waiting for” –June Jordan, poet and social activist
Since before the formal beginnings of the National Physicians Alliance, many of us have collectively dreamt of an organization of empowered physicians dedicated to the public’s health. I cannot think of a more appropriate quote to embody the work of the NPA, and to me the mission of the organization represents why I truly entered the field of medicine in the first place. As a graduating 3rd year Family Medicine resident working with an urban underserved population in Los Angeles, California, I plan to continue working with the underserved and more specifically homeless populations in my daily work. I also desire to continue my work with the Board of Directors of the NPA as I move on to fellowship or full-time clinical work.
I have truly enjoyed my current work on the Board of Directors, which has included serving on the Communications Committee, developing and moving forward with a plan to make the organization’s already solid website more interactive and dynamic, and creating the organization’s blog. Additionally, I have been co-leading the Health Disparities Task Force and developing a process plan and policy plan for the issue within the organization, implementing several educational and strategy sessions around health disparities at the upcoming NPA national conference, and envisioning innovative methods of connecting the grassroots NPA work with the national work. I look forward to continuing work on these issues above through exciting plans that I describe in more detail below.
Let us dream together for a moment. I see the National Physicians Alliance — an organization that is already at the forefront of national discussion and news — becoming a formidable force in the world of medicine and health as we continue to advocate for patients concerns over profits, create strong alliances with likely partners within and outside of the physicians’ organizations, restore integrity to the field of medicine, and inspire further activism, pride, and positive connections among physicians around the country. Some of the areas I would be excited to strengthen for another term as a member of the Board of Directors include those described below.
The face of the NPA to most: the Web. Internet technology and its use for social change is a strong passion of mine. The face of the National Physicians Alliance, to most physicians around the country, is most often the website and the tools and community afforded through it. This year on the Board of Directors, I have been a proponent of revamping the organization’s website to create a more dynamic, interactive, and engaging site with tools that would be relevant to busy physicians and the public alike.
In the past year, I co-founded Cure This (http://www.curethis.org), an experimental online health justice community blog, with contributors consisting of patients/consumers, advocates, and healthcare providers. It was founded as a site separate from the NPA as it is an open community, open to anybody to contribute. Likewise for the NPA, I have developed a blog site, on which fifteen other members and I write posts on policy, national office happenings, and integrity and professionalism. Developing this blog into a vocal physicians’ community voice online is a goal of mine. Too often, physicians’ “communities” online develop conflicts of interests with the pharmaceutical industry or other businesses, and in my opinion this dilutes and removes the integrity of these communities. The NPA is in a unique position to provide an online community voice that empowers each and every member, that engages readers – physicians and non-physicians alike, and that creates a sense of community among physicians otherwise removed from each other by geography.
During the most recent NPA Board meeting, a few of us developed an initial plan for redesigning the website look, feel, content, and utility. In the following few months, I am undertaking the tall task of facilitating the translation of these visionary ideas into reality by working with the NPA web subcommittee and outside internet technology consultants.
In the meantime, I have developed a “wiki” site for the NPA, that is a living, breathing user-contributed online space to disseminate tools for local and national leaders, and brainstorm and plan local events effectively. I have also worked to strengthen the NPA networks on social networking sites like FaceBook. We have an account on a video sharing website and hope to spark the creative energy of the membership of the organization by hosting video submission contests regularly on various issues. This would also excite non-physicians and share the youthful energy of the organization. In the future, features from these various technologies will become implemented in the new NPA website.
In order to fulfill all these goals, it is also imperative that the NPA employ a part-time web manager on staff, to ensure that the website is constantly changing and improving. It would also be a priority for myself and the board in the coming year to secure funding for a part-time web manager for the organization, through donations and grants.
The issues: the bread and butter. I personally am invested in the Health Disparities and the Universal Health Care initiatives of the NPA. Perhaps this passion comes from a longstanding interest in these issues and my previous work as the Jack Rutledge Fellow at the American Medical Student Association (AMSA), during which I spent a year working on these very issues. This year, I have helped gather a team of NPA members into a taskforce to address racial and ethnic health disparities. We are developing a process plan for the NPA’s work on the issue and hope to unveil our policy plan at the NPA national conference in Houston, Texas, in March 2008. We plan to further develop this policy plan, work with legislators on existing legislation on the issue, energize physicians around local and national work on the issue, and pursue grant opportunities for the NPA Foundation on this issue. I am also passionate about building upon the success and momentum of the NPA’s work around Universal Health Care, especially at this very exciting time when Americans of all ages and backgrounds are energized about healthcare issues and the mainstream media is discussing healthcare in the context of the upcoming presidential elections.
Grassroots efforts. Although much progress has been made in this area, we have a long ways to go to more directly engage members around the country, and to strongly connect the grassroots energy with national NPA efforts. Countless resources, much time, and tons of energy go into planning the NPA national meetings, and I would instead favor the creation of five regional meetings around the country next year in place of a national meeting, following on the success of the Denver area regional meeting. In addition, I would propose a series of “Health Justice Camps” or “Med Leader Camps” based loosely on the BarCamp philosophy that has sparked energy around hundreds of cities across the world using a structure called an “un-conference” and a gathering energy similar to that of “house parties”. The tools to create these “camps” are available online, and a few passionate NPA leaders in each city could host these yearly or twice yearly gatherings. Participants would arrive the day of the event and “sign up” to share policy/medical/organizing/health information in 30 minute sessions, with the main stipulation being that all participants have to either host an informal session or assist in setting up, cleaning up, or entertainment. Lastly, it will be of key importance in the coming year to continue fostering grassroots energies around locally relevant issues while not losing sight of the large regional and national policy issues that the organization faces. I am committed to finding ways to help fund and engage such regional and local activities.
As a member of the current Board of Directors, I pride myself in being able to challenge others’ decisions but also in being a good listener and weighing various sides of a discussion before putting forth my personal opinion on the discussion. I believe that I bring a certain balance to the Board, including my passions around connecting the grassroots energy to the national energy. In addition, I add diversity to the Board in several ways, including my background and identity as a woman of color, my background in local organizing, and my knowledge of online tools and online organizing.
This year the Board of Directors of the National Physicians Alliance has consisted of an inspiring and brilliant group of physicians dedicated to strengthening the organization and bettering the health of Americans. I am more than honored to be on the Board this year and hope to continue my dedication to the organization through another term on the Board.
Category: NPA Board Elections
Posted by BMS on Friday, December 28, 2007 at 6:44 pm
I am a private cardiologist in Bangor, Maine, a member of a 19 physician single specialty group. We provide care for a largely underserved population of about 400,000 people, from Waterville, ME, 60 miles south of Bangor, and all the way up to the Canadian border. I have been in practice for about 18 months, graduating from the University of Washington in Seattle in June 2006. MY medical education started in Germany, but has taken me to Britain, Japan, the West Indies and last but not least, the United States.
I have been a member of the National Physicians Alliance since 2006 and was honored to serve on its Board of Director since 2007 for a one year term. I have also been appointed the Chair of its Pharma Taskforce. It started as a taskforce working against the sale of provider prescription data. It has now expanded its scope and leads a campaign named “The Unbranded Doctor”. Goal is to curb the undue influence of Pharma on physicians and patients in order to improve patient care.
Other leadership experience includes positions as vice president and later president of the University of Washington Housestaff Association, a one year term as house staff representative on the University of Washington Medical Center board of directors and since fall of this year, as junior member of my practice’s executive committee.
To the NPA I bring a my one year experience as a NPA leader as well as my perspective of various health care systems – in particular in Germany, where health insurance is universal (and mandatory), a topic that certainly highly acute here in the US. Most importantly, I am looking forward to continuing my work within the Pharma Taskforce.
___
Addendum:
I was asked to outline my successes in fund raising. With some delay (back from vacation), I admit to not have had much success on that field. I have had some success earlier with fund raising for a run at the LA marathon in 2006. For the NPA, I have held one event together with State Representative Sharon Treat in December 2006 in Bangor, ME, which got mention in the Bangor Daily News – this has resulted in a few promises, but as far as I know not much commitment. This is certainly an area which I need – and promise – to make major improvements.
Category: NPA Board Elections
Posted by Mitesh Rao on Friday, December 28, 2007 at 4:50 pm
I first heard about the National Physician’s Alliance after meeting Josh Rising, a fellow Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at the Yale School of Medicine and a member of NPA’s Board of Directors. My fellow scholars and I had been discussing physician and industry interaction and lamenting the shortcomings of the current medical professional societies. We had been talking about the rising cost of health care, the millions of uninsured, and the ever changing face of the medical industry. It seemed to many of us that the professional societies which have historically represented our field have, in recent years, further and further narrowed their focus to that of a medical trade organization. In truth, this role is one that certainly needs to be filled for the profession. However, these goals of financial and professional success for physicians are not the only bounds of what should constitute a medical society’s actions.
It really is no wonder that our country has continued to lose faith in physicians. Healthcare has become an industry in the truest sense, and there is virtually no aspect of our system that is not tied into business interests. Whether they are pharmaceutical companies, technology corporations, or even our academic system, money has a strong influence in every aspect of medical care. So where do we as physicians stand in this situation? The professional societies have grown more and more preoccupied with making sure that physicians retain whatever shrinking piece of the healthcare finance pie that can be held on to. Even academic medicine relies more and more on private business contributions to finance both education and research. If the issue only revolved around money, this struggle would be understandable. But when does the focus go to the patients?
We often forget that our primary objective as physicians is to care for the wellbeing of our society. I interpret this to mean, first and foremost, that we are obligated to put the interests of the populations we care for above our own. Perhaps this notion is idealistic, but then again focusing on the finances leaves little room to pay attention to the patient. There is a balance here to be found, and that level field is based upon re-working our current system. Correcting the spending structure, changing the system’s incentives, improving access and preventative care, reducing unnecessary spending, these are all small parts of a larger movement that our country will need to make in the years to come. Physicians, as one of the primary parties in this system, will need to step forward and assume a leadership role in these changes. Our clinical expertise and experience allow for us to be ideal advocates in the process for change. While we may not have the understanding of finance and infrastructure as perhaps the business and government sections of the healthcare system do, we understand the care provision and the population we provide for. Our role in this change will be one of advocacy for the health of this nation and the wellbeing of our patients. We need to stop directing all our energies at saving our shrinking salaries, and focus instead on reworking a system that desperately needs change.
This is why, when Josh talked about the NPA, I was interested. On the NPA website, it states the NPA is founded on the core values of medicine, and that the organization feels that the “collective ethic and energy (of physicians) needs(s) to be harnessed to bring real change.” This, to me, represents what I feel the current medical leadership organizations are lacking. And as a physician, I want not only to be a part of that, but to help drive that movement. I have been involved in advocacy work for most of my life. Before college, I helped organize a rural-medicine surgical outreach program in southern India. In medical school, I played an integral role in the JEFFHope urban medicine program through Jefferson Medical College, heading up the research division and helping obtain funding for the program’s continuation. Now, in between my residency in General Surgery, I’ve taken two years off to join the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar’s Program at Yale. This program has helped expand my understanding of this country’s healthcare problems from entirely new perspectives, and has helped give me the tools as a health-services researcher and physician leader to work for change. One of my projects during my two-years as a fellow with the RWJ will look at the efforts across the country to enact legislation mediating the sale of physician prescribing data. My fellow scholars and I will be approaching this issue from many research fronts, hopefully increasing both physician and public understanding of the issue.
Knowing that the personal beliefs and hopes that I have for the healthcare system and the medical profession are directly in-line with those of the NPA is what makes me want to offer my time and efforts to the organization. I would certainly like to be considered for a position on your Board of Directors. I also feel that my involvement would be well directed towards either the Policy or Ethics committees, which represent two aspects of the medicine that are of significant interest to me. The integration and relationship that healthcare has with the public sector and policy world is an area of study that I have directed both my personal and research interests towards. An organization like the NPA with its ethics and patient-aimed goals is well positioned to take the lead on a number of issues currently on the ballot. Whether it is the regulation of physician and industry interaction, data privacy, or ethical disclosures and pharmaceutical company monitoring, there are many fronts for the NPA to direct their attentions towards.
Overall, I am glad to have learned about the NPA. I can honestly say that, before I joined the Clinical Scholar’s program, I never truly understood the ethical and political issues facing healthcare and our profession. Armed with what I now know, the training I am receiving in my fellowship, and my desire to change the way we advocate for healthcare as a profession, I feel that there is much that I would like to do to help change not only the healthcare system, but the medical profession as well. These changes need to be made as a part of an organized effort by physicians across this country, and this is where I see an organization like the NPA as a critical structure for change. As a trained outcomes and health-services researcher, I feel that my skill set and expertise would be of strong benefit to the organization. Thank you for considering my application.
Category: NPA Board Elections,Uncategorized
Posted by Rishi Manchanda on Friday, December 28, 2007 at 4:49 pm
“Doctors are the natural advocates of the poor and social problems are very largely within their jurisdiction.”1
Considering medicine’s trajectory since Rudolf Virchow attempted to define the role of the physician over 150 years ago, his declaration remains as sobering as it is relevant. Despite a few notable exceptions, it would seem as if organized medicine in the US has largely pursued a vision antithetical to Virchow’s. A commitment to address the social determinants of health within medicine’s “jurisdiction” has been abandoned for a commercialized biomedical model of health that eschews social context and ignores considerations of equity or justice.
To me, the National Physicians Alliance represents nothing less than a broad historic effort to redefine the role of the doctor as a physician-advocate-ally and to recast organized medicine as an agent of progressive social change in the spirit of Virchow and other pioneers of social medicine. When I recently learned of a chance to participate in this effort at the national level, the decision to apply was immediate.
As a member of the National Health Service Corps, I work as a full-time physician at the nation’s largest free clinic, Venice Family Clinic. Trained in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics within a Community Health and Advocacy Residency program at UCLA, I now care for uninsured and underinsured children and adults, with a special focus on homeless and HIV positive patients.
While my clinical work allows me to directly care for, share in, and bear witness to the lives of my uninsured and homeless patients, I also try to address structural causes of disease as the coordinator of a homelessness prevention and intervention program based at St.John’s Well Child and Family Center, a remarkably progressive clinic based in South Los Angeles (formerly known as South Central LA). As a community coalition, our partners include a tenant organizing group, a community health worker/promotoras organization, a network of South LA community clinics, and a homeless advocacy group.
In addition to these leadership experiences grounded in community service and health advocacy, I have served as chief resident of the UCLA Med/Peds Residency Program, was the program’s first graduate, and now serve on its advisory board. During residency, I coordinated a Los Angeles County-wide survey of residents physicians’ training in and knowledge of health disparities and their attitudes towards universal healthcare. This work led to a Los Angeles Times op-ed article arguing for greater physician training in the care of the underserved. As a founding member of a South Asian American progressive political group, I have helped to organize several community events with other minority communities, including a forum on race and immigration shortly after the immigrant rights rallies of 2006 and voter outreach for the 2008 presidential election. In community work in the US and abroad over the years, I’ve organized focus groups and performed case studies around issues ranging from the role of community health workers in addressing the South African HIV epidemic to the perceived health barriers among Ethiopian and Brazilian immigrants in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Through these experiences, I’ve developed a set of skills that continue to shape my career as a physician-advocate. I hope to contribute all of these skills and lessons learned to the mission of the National Physicians Alliance. Many of these interdisciplinary skills likely mirror those of other progressive physicians. They include skills in policy analysis and writing, legislative and media advocacy, survey and community based participatory research, and coalition building and community organizing, particularly among communities of color.
As part of the NPA, I hope to contribute to our collective goals, whether as a member of the Board of Directors or the National Committees. Among the committees, I am most interested in the Policy Committee Co-chair or Campaign coordinator positions, and have a particular interest in the global health workforce development and universal healthcare campaigns.
Regardless of which specific NPA campaign I have the opportunity to join, here are some ideas I would pursue as a Board or Committee member. First, patient and NPA member narratives, combined with letters to the editor and sustained media outreach to prominent medical journals and the popular press, can continue to be effective advocacy and recruitment tools. Strategic alliances should be pursued with organizations at the national and state level which share common platforms, such as the National Health Service Corps, the Association of Clinicians for the Underserved, the Progressive States Network, the American Nurses Association, and Physicians for Human Rights. Finally, as a progressive physician with extensive community experience in Los Angeles, I hope to help build NPA presence on the West Coast as NPA’s organizational structure expands to facilitate regional and state level involvement.
So NPA membership, thanks for your consideration. And if any of you happen to be in Los Angeles, feel free to drop a line.
In solidarity,
Rishi
Category: NPA Board Elections,Uncategorized
Posted by Valerie on Friday, December 28, 2007 at 4:47 pm
I am writing to express my strong desire for re-election to the NPA Board of Directors. I share the core values of the NPA and of our profession: service, integrity, and advocacy. I would like to continue the work that I have begun at the NPA with the goal of ensuring equitable, affordable, high quality health care for all.
I have a unique blend of medical, public health and administrative experience and expertise. Since 1986 I have trained, practiced and taught in three of the major Academic Health Centers in Philadelphia and I am currently Professor of Clinical Anesthesiology and Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. I have experienced first hand the social, economic and access challenges that pregnant women in Philadelphia must often overcome. In addition, during night call, I am regularly involved in resuscitation and surgery for the victims of gun violence that are brought to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. I fully understand the day-to-day hurdles faced by both patients and practitioners in Philadelphia.
I have a strong administrative background having served for 5 years as Chairman of Anesthesiology at Drexel University College of Medicine. Holding numerous organizational positions, including President of my national specialty society, has further enhanced my leadership and administrative skills.
I hold a Masters in Public Health with a health policy focus, from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. My thesis examined state-based health care reform efforts and the political and environmental factors that correlate with the success of these efforts. This background has informed much of the work that I have contributed as a member of the NPA Policy Committee.
As a current NPA Board member, I fully understand and am committed to fulfilling the numerous duties and obligations that come with this office. My passion is developing and advocating for viable policy solutions to achieve universal health care. This work also supports many of the other NPA missions including eliminating health disparities, promoting patient safety and reforming malpractice. With your support, I would be honored to continue to serve the NPA as a member of the Board of Directors.
Category: NPA Board Elections,Uncategorized
Posted by Alexa on Friday, December 28, 2007 at 3:59 pm
NPA is excited to be entering our first set of elections for the board of trustees. Because we are hosting our elections online, we want to give our members a chance to get to know each of the five candidates for the two elected board positions. In addition to posting the CVs, personal statements, and letters of support for each of our candidates online at http://npalliance.org/content/pages/candidate_information, we’re posting each personal statement on the blog as a starting point, and encourage members to ask questions in the form of posting a comment to a particular post.
The candidates will then have a chance to respond, and we can foster an excellent and informative discussion online.We will be taking votes in our election from December 30th until January 14th at 5pm, so we encourage you to get started with the discussion now so we can all make an informed decision. All posts should be tagged with NPA board elections, so you can easily find them by clicking on the tag at the right.
Finally, I would like to remind you of our election code of conduct. It is our goal to conduct elections which are fair, honorable, and professional. We feel that campaigning for or against a candidate is outside of the bounds of such an election. For more details about the code of conduct, please see http://npalliance.org/content/pages/election_code_of_conduct.
Alexa Oster, MD
Chair, NPA Elections Subcommittee
Category: NPA Board Elections,Uncategorized