Secretary
The Missouri State Medical Association had 4,745 members as of the December 2014 audit. This was a net loss of 181 members from our membership of 4,926 as of the December 2013 audit. Following is a breakdown according to classification.
| Year | Students | Residents | Active | Honor | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 993 | 70 | 3,379 | 484 | 4,926 |
| 2014 | 1,019 | 56 | 3,194 | 476 | 4,475 |
| +26 | −14 | −185 | −8 | −181 |
Number of member deaths reported during 2013 totaled 19.
The Committee on Nominations, which is appointed by the President, from the House of Delegates, must submit nominations for the following offices:
President Elect to fill the expired term of John O. Stanley, MD, Kansas City.
Three Vice Presidents to fill the expired terms of David Poggemeier, MD, St. Charles; Robert Zahn, MD, Ozark; Jay L. Meyer, St. Louis.
A Speaker and Vice Speaker to fill the expired terms of David Chalk, MD, Washington, Speaker and Lancer Gates, DO, Kansas City, Vice Speaker. Both are eligible for re-election to their current position.
Three Delegates and Two Alternate Delegates to the AMA to fill the vacancies created by the expiration at the conclusion of the 2015 Annual Convention of the terms of Delegates James Conant, MD, St. Joseph; Rebecca Hierholzer, MD, Leawood, KS; William Huffaker, MD, Chesterfield and Alternate Delegates Warren Lovinger, Jr., MD, Nevada and Mr. Avik Som, St. Louis. The new two year-terms will begin at the conclusion of the 2015 MSMA Annual Convention and end at the conclusion of the 2017 MSMA Annual Convention.
The terms of the following Councilors will expire in 2015: 2nd District – Sandra Ahlum, MD, Hannibal; 3rd District – Ravi Johar, MD, Chesterfield and Robert A. Brennan, MD, St. Louis; 4th District – Kevin Weikart, MD, Lake St. Louis; 6th District – Warren Lovinger, Jr., MD, Nevada; 7th District – Betty Drees, MD, Kansas City; 8th District – Alexander Hover, Springfield; 10th District – Kirby Turner, MD, Poplar Bluff; Organized Medical Staff Section – Peggy Barjenbruch, MD, Mexico; Young Physician Section – Ramona Behshad, MD, Chesterfield; Resident & Fellow Section – Brad Harr, DO, Fairview, IL; Medical Student Section – Mr. Nathan Nolan, Columbia
The terms of the following Vice Councilors will expire in 2015: 2nd District – Bryson McHardy, MD, Hannibal; 4th District – Martin Willman, MD, St. Peters; 6th District – David Kuhlmann, MD, Sedalia; 8th District – M. Ellen Nichols, MD, Joplin; 10th District – Charles Lawson, MD, Poplar Bluff; Organized Medical Staff Section – James Conant, MD, St. Joseph; Young Physician Section – Sarah Florio, MD, Lee’s Summit; Resident & Fellow Section – Michael D. Puricelli, MD, Columbia; Medical Student Section – Ms. Josephine Doo, Kansas City.
Delegates shall meet during the Annual Convention to elect the Councilors and Vice-Councilors for their respective districts and sections. The election shall be certified to the House of Delegates on the prescribed form which will be furnished.
The entire session will be held at the Westin Crown Center Hotel, Kansas City, MO. The House of Delegates will hold its First Session on Friday, April 17, 2015, at 8:00 am and the Second Session is on Sunday, April 19, 2015, at 8:15 am.
Treasurer
The report of the Treasurer is covered in the Financial Statement which is published in the March/April issue of Missouri Medicine.
Executive Vice President
The report of the Executive Vice President is covered in President’s State of the MSMA speech on page 226.
Alliance
On behalf of organized medical Alliance, I have traveled to many counties, and states and participated in many noble causes. Throughout my travels, I have embraced many friends who have become “my shining stars.” I wish to thank the membership of the Missouri State Medical Association Alliance for their volunteer and charitable activities to build health communities. This is the mission of the MSMAA and it has been an honor and a privilege to serve as president.
MSMA Alliance members Marsha Conant, Barbara Hover, Stacy Peters, Mary Shuman, Sandra Murdock, Allene Wright, and Sue Ann Greco attended the AMA Alliance Leadership Development Conference and 2014 Annual Meeting in Chicago on June 8–10. The meeting was a chance to network with Alliance members from across the country while learning effective leadership techniques to put into practice at the State and County levels. The highlight for MSMA Alliance members attending the Annual Meeting was the presentation of the 2014 Legislative Educational and Awareness Promotion (LEAP) Award to the Missouri State Alliance for their participation at the White Coat Rally Day held this past March in Jefferson City.
State activities this year included continuing with last year’s health initiative aimed at increasing physical fitness and quality family time called Move Across Missouri (MAM). We encouraged medical families to Move Across Missouri, whether it is biking, hiking, swimming walking, or running; and we encouraged each local Alliance to incorporate the initiative into their health projects and enter either as a group or individually. We will celebrate the results at this Annual Meeting in Kansas City.
Our Fall Conference was held in St. Joseph, hosted by the Buchanan County Medical Alliance., on Oct. 21–22. We “Moved Across Missouri”, heard programming on breast cancer awareness, and the Southern Medical Association Alliance’s “Almond Workshop,” which is a module for medical society Alliances on how to prepare and submit their local projects on Doctors’ Day, Medical Heritage, and Health.
Our newly-established Alliance Scholarship grew through fund-raising efforts via the Holiday Sharing Card and the Annual Foundation Fundraiser/Dinner/Casino Night held at this Kansas City meeting.
The MSMAA held their contest Smoking Is Not for Me. Entries were received from all county Alliances and the awards will be made at this upcoming Annual Meeting in Kansas City.
Reporting their good projects from all over the state were organized Alliances of Boone, Cape Girardeau, St. Louis Metropolitan, Tri-County, and Greene Counties. Commission on Continuing Education
The Commission reviewed and approved the following accreditation actions:
Reaccreditations for Organization: SSM Health Care St. Louis-St. Louis; Kansas City Southwest Clinical Society-Kansas City; Capital Region Medical Center-Jefferson City; Bothwell Regional Health Center-Sedalia; Saint Francis Medical Center-Cape Girardeau; Institute for International Medicine-Kansas City.
Progress Reports: St. Anthony’s Medical Center-St. Louis; St. Mary’s Health Center-Jefferson City.
The Commission planned and approved the 2013 Annual Convention CME Program approved for 18.75 hours of AMA PRA Category 1 creditsTM.
Providers Relinquishing Accreditation Status: Primaris-Columbia, MO; Kneibert Clinic-Poplar Bluff, MO; Skaggs Community Health Center-Branson, MO.
The Missouri State Medical Association currently accredits thirty-two entities statewide.
The Missouri State Medical Association and Kansas Medical Society co-sponsored CME Provider training on October 4, 2013 in Blue Springs, Missouri. Staff from the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) and the American Medical Association (AMA) presented at the seminar. Additionally, surveyor training was conducted for the CME Committee members.
MSMA staff attended the state medical society meeting sponsored by the ACCME and reported back to the Commission on issues and trends relevant to CME. Additionally, staff participated in the ACCME’s monthly noon conference calls.
The MSMA submitted its self-study report for re-accreditation. The MSMA will receive notification of the type and term of accreditation in March of 2014.
The Commission continues to work with Oakstone Publishing as the vendor to provide online CME for MSMA members.
Membership
MSMA closed out the 2014 year with a total of 4,747 members. Active members account for 3,196 and the rest are either retired members, residents, or students. Even though MSMA gained 333 new active members in 2014, the overall membership numbers were down 183 from the previous year. In 2014 MSMA staff sent out a total of 34,510 invoices seeking renewed and new members. Fifty-four percent of active MSMA dues-paying members are 54 years old or younger, and MSMA had 227 DOs for the 2014 membership year. AMA had a total of 2,438 active members from Missouri last year.
During the MSMA Convention this year, any non-member physician who attends will be invited to join MSMA when they arrive at the registration desk, and directed to the membership station for more information about the benefits and importance of supporting organized medicine. In addition to the invaluable benefits MSMA provides through advocacy and educational resources, benefits offered through our many outside partners could save our members an estimated $1,700.
Our partnerships with outside member service providers now include the endorsement of two additional offerings. One, TSYS Merchant Solutions, brings members preferred credit card processing systems at substantial savings, and the other, Medical Waste Services, promises every MSMA member an immediate savings on whatever they currently pay for medical waste disposal.
Long-standing members and leaders of MSMA are asked to greet new members of MSMA when you see that they have joined, and reach out to them about getting involved. Peer-to-peer interaction and encouragement is crucial to member recruitment and retention, and is the role of all members. If you know of someone who is not a member, work with MSMA staff to help get them on board.
Joining MSMA has never been easier. The MSMA website (www.msma.org/joinrenew) allows any physician to join or pay renewal dues online. Existing members can quickly update their profile information and access important physician resources by logging in to the secure areas of our website. Staff continues to work very hard to capture the email addresses of our members and all physicians in Missouri, in order to deliver timely messages and save postage expenses.
Members are recognized for notable accomplishments in Missouri Medicine, and also on the MSMA Facebook page. Staff contacts each member when they are honored, and they seem to appreciate this. And when they do, they give our page a look and a “LIKE” at www.facebook.com/momedical. Be sure you do too.
Missouri Physicians Health Program
This has been a busy year as indicated by the number of referrals and the numerous Missouri physicians that were assisted. The MPHP provides a variety of services. This includes consultation, intervention, referral for treatment, monitoring and advocacy. The consultive service is especially active. Hospital administrators, physicians, colleagues and family members call the Program Coordinator or Clinical Coordinator to make a referral, discuss a potential referral or brainstorm about the necessity of making a referral. Information is often requested about how to identify problems, what services are available and how to handle issues of impairment should they occur. Many hours are required to meet their needs. The MPHP provides a safe and knowledgeable venue for any question or concern about physician health.
Missouri State Medical Association Insurance Agency
Your MSMA Insurance Agency is an independent insurance agency that offers insurance consultation to all Missouri physicians. The Agency offers policies primarily for professional liability and health, but also covers workers compensation, business office coverage, disability, long-term care, and life.
The board of the Insurance Agency reviews budget and financial statements at each quarterly meeting. Agency financial statements are audited and consolidated into the MSMA financials.
The board is supportive of the Agency and encourages all MSMA members to contact the Agency for a competitive health insurance or professional liability insurance bid.
Missouri State Medical Foundation
Your Missouri State Medical Foundation loaned $123,000 to Missouri medical school students in 2014. The Foundation has loaned more than $11 million to Missouri medical students over the last fifty years.
In addition to continuing to make student loans, the Foundation is annually funding five $2500 MSMA Scholarships at each of the six Missouri medical schools.
The Foundation has also assisted with the creation of scholarship funds by providing $5000 matching grants to:
St Charles/Lincoln County Medical Society
Boone County Medical Society
Northeast Missouri Medical Society
Northwest Missouri Medical Society
Cole County Medical Society
Quad County Medical Society
Metropolitan Medical Society of Greater Kansas City
MSMA Alliance
The current financial strength of the Foundation is due to the strong support received from the MSMA and the MSMA Alliance.
Public Affairs Commission
The MSMA Public Affairs Commission was directed to carry-out Resolution #13 from the Association’s Annual Convention April 2014.
Resolution #13
Resolved, MSMA send a clear message that, in general, businesses that wish to promote the goal of better health should recognize that selling tobacco products contradicts that commitment.
To that end, your Public Affairs Commission:
MSMA sent an opinion/letter to the editor to the Missouri media encouraging businesses and pharmacies that also sell tobacco products to follow the lead of CVS pharmacy by eliminating tobacco sales in their places of business.
MSMA published in Missouri Medicine and in Missouri Pharmacis, the magazine of the Missouri Pharmacy Association, an article regarding the history of this issue, and how MSMA is encouraging businesses and pharmacies that also sell tobacco products to follow the lead of CVS pharmacy by eliminating tobacco sales in their places of business.
MSMA has joined the St. Louis Smoking Cessation Awareness Campaign to educate St. Louisans and Missourians on the resources available to those who want to quit smoking. Research shows a smoker’s chance of successfully quitting is doubled if they engage their doctor or health care professional to help. MSMA promoted additional smoking cessation resources: the Missouri Tobacco Quit line at 800-QUIT-NOW, or online at www.PlanMyQuit.com.
Your Public Affairs Commission recommended that MSMA partner with the free “Dispensary of Hope”, a Nashville, Tn.,-based service that collects unexpired medical samples so they can be dispensed to nearly 80 community health centers and charitable pharmacies in 15 states. Donor practices place the drugs in a secured box provided by the service, which covers shipping costs. The service logs the medications, and sends back a receipt with the information for the practice to have for recordkeeping and regulatory compliance purposes. MSMA publicized this service via member materials, publications, both print and electronically.
MSMA conducted an Advocacy Workshop that trained 30-plus physicians on grassroots lobbying and communication. Presenters included experts from the AMA’s Political Education Programs department, and four physician legislators currently serving in the Missouri General Assembly.
MSMA and the Show Me Tort Reform Coalition organized the 2015 White Coat Rally Day where more than 100 physicians turned out to support Tort Reform.
Publications Committee
Volume Number 111 of Missouri Medicine showcased national authors and featured ground-breaking scientific articles. This volume published four issues featuring “theme” articles and two issues featuring a variety of scientific topics and micro-series. It contained 524 pages and 62 scientific articles. The Journal received a record number of scientific manuscripts for peer-review and continued regular departments.
Your current Missouri Medicine is peer-reviewed, indexed by MEDLINE, The National Library of Medicine, and linked to PubMed Central. We are included in EBSCOhost databases, the largest premium online information resource for researchers.
In 2014, Missouri Medicine featured two ground-breaking studies: Increased Coronary Plaque Found in Long-Distance Running and the Use of Beta Blocker Eyedrops for Acute Migraines. In addition, we were proud to partner with the following medical schools and organizations.
Themes
Nutrition and Exercise Physiology by University of Missouri School of Medicine, College of Human Environmental Sciences and College of Agriculture Food and Natural Resources
Pediatric Developmental & Behavioral Health by Children’s Mercy Hospital, Division of Developmental & Behavioral Sciences
Saint Louis University Center for Vaccine Development
Bernard Becker Medical Library by Washington University School of Medicine
Mini-Series
The Bite of the Loxosceles Reclusa
Clues by Hands
Death & Near Death Experiences
Pain Management
Preventive Cardiology
In 2014, our Journal presented its first The Arthur Gale Freedom of Expression Award to Medical Student Nathaniel Nolan. It is to be presented annually to the author of the best commentary article published in Missouri Medicine, in honor of Arthur Gale, MD, one of the Journal’s Contributing Editors and MSMA member since 1976..
Special thanks to our Editorial Board for their good work year after year: Drs. David Fleming, Art Gale, William Reynolds, and Charles Van Way, III, Justin Albani. We welcome as a new Contributing Editor Jeffrey G. Copeland, MD, and new Editorial Board Members: Drs. Pradeep Sahota, Neurology, and James S. Magera, Urology. We thank Drs. Ann Romaker, Sleep Medicine, and Marilyn M. Rymer, Neurology, for their past service.
Missouri Medicine provides reprinted papers for several prestigious medical specialty magazines and journals, and also selectively reprints articles from the medical component societies in Missouri and from national publications appropriate for our audience.
The Publication Committee, Editor, John C. Hagan, III, MD, and Managing Editor, Lizabeth Fleenor, appreciate the many contributions of the MSMA, Alliance members, and others who have contributed to Missouri Medicine. The Committee appreciates the Association’s continued support of the Journal.
Resident Fellow Section
This past year, the resident and fellow section of MSMA engaged in a process of unification and network building within the section and the MSMA. In St. Louis, RFS member Jamie Mull, MD, worked to create a Resident and Fellow section within the St. Louis Metropolitan Medical Society. This has allowed St. Louis members to come together and be mentored, and it has helped facilitate medical student participation for future years in the RFS section. We appreciate all of the support from St. Louis and MSMA, and look forward to increasing resident involvement in Kansas City and Columbia through similar programs this coming year.
Medical Student Sections
A.T. Still University – KCOM
This year has been a great success for the MSS Chapter at A.T. Still University-KCOM. The roster this year contains 34 second- and first-year members who are involved on campus, as well as numerous third- and fourth-year students out on clinical rotations. The spring finished up with a first-year student panel to discuss rotations and preceptorships. This fall has seen many fun activities for our Chapter, including two fundraisers. We have partnered with facility and local physicians to enrich our curriculum with case presentations by Matthew Hardee, DO; Difficult Topics Event with Wes Ryle, MD, and Shakila Mathew, DO; and a Suture and Knot-tying Clinic with Kevin Smith, MD. The Chapter hosted a Fellows Panel for second-year students, focusing on preparation for boards. In December, we once again partnered with the Red Cross to host a blood drive. This drive collected 82 units, the most in our MSS Chapter and school history, and was the Blood Drive of the Month for the Midwest. We look forward to continuing to bring events to our members and reaching out to our local community. Spring elections are just around the corner and, with that, comes the changing of the guards and a bright new year. We look forward to the graduation of members from our Class of 2015.
Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences
The Kansas City University of Medicine & Biosciences (KCU) MSS Chapter has had another great year of gaining new members and facilitating new experiences as we continue to grow as a Chapter, being one of the most active organizations at Missouri’s largest medical school. Our current roster of 222 members has allowed us to continue to serve out the mission of MSMA in promoting the art and science of medicine and the betterment of public health.
This year, our organization placed our community service initiatives on the international community of public health. Given the events that our healthcare colleagues abroad have faced in the past year, we wanted to do what we could here in Missouri to make an impact for their cause. Teaming up with the Medical Mission run by the Sisters of St. Francis of the Holy Eucharist in Independence, our organization has assisted the mission in the past year.
Volunteers from our group have worked to sort donated medical supplies (surplus and goodwill donations from Kansas City-area hospitals) in order to be organized and shipped to third-world health clinics and hospitals across the globe. The Medical Mission ships approximately two large shipping containers each month to places in need and through the help of our organization.
Aside from our service work, we have continued our tradition of welcoming incoming medical students with a recruitment rally, where we not only share the benefits of joining professional organizations and societies, such as MSMA, but we also provide an opportunity for upperclassmen to offer advice and encouragement to first-year medical students as they begin their transition into medical school. This event was a great success and allowed us to surpass last year’s recruitment, helping us to continue our Chapter’s growth.
We have hosted several academic review sessions for our members to help them prepare for exams and to help our second-year students review for their boards. We also recently hosted a “Surviving Clerkships” panel along with our colleagues in the Student Osteopathic Medical Association and Missouri Osteopathic Medical Association. At this event, we invited physician preceptors and upperclassmen to come speak to first-and second-year students about what to expect during their clinical rotation years of medical school.
Although first semester has come to a close, the new semester brings forth great opportunities for the KCU MSMAMSS Chapter. We are looking forward to continuing our service work with the Medical Mission, continuing to host academic reviews, and also hosting a brand new patient presentation event to allow students the opportunity to apply what they have learned in the classroom to individual patient experiences.
We would like to thank Larry Segars, Pharm.D., our faculty advisor in the KCU Department of Student Affairs, and also the MSMA-MSS Division for their continued support of our organization. We are excited to continue our growth and traditions as we move forward into this new year.
St. Louis University School of Medicine
The St. Louis University MSMA-MSS Chapter welcomed the incoming class during their welcome week with a short introduction meeting about MSMA and AMA. Once the first-year class had completed a few weeks of classes and settled in to a routine, we had a social event with delicious pizza from Epic Pizza and Subs for those interested in learning more about organized medicine, as well as the benefits of joining early on in their medical careers. We followed with a “Success in Medical School” talk, given by Taylor DesRosiers. In November, we hosted a talk concerning GME funding that was given by Julie Gammack, MD.
In terms of collaborative efforts between the Chapters of St. Louis University and Washington University in St. Louis, we held our 2nd Annual Fall Conference, which hosted talks concerning legislation and policy-making, as well as parliamentary procedure. We also hosted a simulated House of Delegates and panel discussion about Medicaid expansion in Missouri. The panel was comprised of Heidi Miller, MD; Tim McBride, PhD; Walton Sumner II, MD; Bob Onder, MD; and William Peck, MD, who served as moderator. In late January, we held our 2nd Annual MSMA-AMA Trivia Night and Silent Auction. The funds raised from this were donated to the Institute for Family Medicine, which is a family practice located in South St. Louis County, which also participates in community and school health programs.
We continued to partner with Health Protection & Education Services, which is located in the Delmar Loop where free health-screening services are offered on the third Saturday of the month. We were able to have three representatives from SLU attend the 2014 AMA Interim Meeting in Dallas; and we look forward to participating in events such as the MSMA Annual Convention and the AMA Annual Convention in the coming months.
University of Missouri – Columbia
The MSMA-MSS at University of Missouri - Columbia started off the year with a successful recruitment event sponsored by Boone County Medical Society (BCMS). We had nearly 80 percent of our incoming first-year medical students join MSMA. BCMS graciously supplied membership incentives, including Maxwell Medical Reference Guides, reflex hammers, and a Littmann Cardiology III stethoscope that was raffled off to new members. This complemented incentives provided by MSMA, which was also a huge draw to new members and included MSMA bags, stationary supplies, and a cash raffle prize. We held a luncheon for first-year students to provide them with information and answer any questions they had about organized medicine.
We also had a very successful fall fundraiser organized by Chapter President-elect Dan Lovinger. Our annual Halloween party, Terrortoma, brought in $2,000 which was donated to MedZou, our local free clinic run entirely by medical students with support from our medical school and attending physicians who volunteer their time for patients. Our other fundraiser was a Trivia Night benefiting Children’s Hospital, organized by Community Service Chair Jennifer Haslag-Minoff.
Mizzou had a very successful year in the form of representation at the regional and national level. Chapter Representative Nathan Nolan served as Region Delegate to the AMA House of Delegates and served on the Committee on Medical Education. Junior medical students Shafi Lodhi and Ariel Carpenter attended their first meeting as delegates to the AMA-MSS Interim meeting and got their first taste of organized medicine on a national level.
Upcoming events for students at the University of Missouri - Columbia include: AMA-MSS Region 2 meeting in Omaha, NE; MSMA Annual Convention in Kansas City, MO; and Chapter Executive-Board elections for the upcoming 2015–2016 school year.
University of Missouri – Kansas City
The UMKC Chapter of the MSMA-MSS has had an exciting year thus far. Our year started in June at the National AMA Conference in Chicago. We had four representatives attend the conference and we were able to engage in a variety of activities throughout the conference. We were able to bring back many ideas to implement into our monthly meetings and create a better learning environment for our peers. Being a part of the national conference, we also set a goal to start working on a resolution that we can submit for annual or interim next year. We are currently working toward that goal. Our goals and updates from the conference were discussed with the Chapter members.
With the ideas from the conference still in mind, we planned our first recruitment event. We were able to welcome more than 50 new members from the incoming first-year class alone. The event was held in the fall during the initial week of undergraduate classes in the Oak Street Dorms where food was provided by Jimmy John’s. We appreciated the presence of Haley Wansing, MSMA-MSS liaison, and multiple current AMA members, who were able to illustrate the benefits of being a member. The event was a great success and we have enjoyed the addition of multiple new members at our monthly meetings so far.
In November, we sent five students to the 2014 AMA Interim Meeting in Dallas, TX. One of the members was a first-time attendee; so much time was spent getting familiar with the state and regional members and physicians who attended the conference. There were many new leaders appointed to positions for the region and interesting resolutions were discussed. Students were able to bring back these experiences to share with Chapter members.
This past winter, our Chapter planned a Pie-and-Cider Social to help students branch out, as well as to provide some ways to relieve stress during finals. It was a huge success as students were appreciative for a study break and were also able to mingle with one another. This social idea stemmed from the lack of interaction between the older students in the program and some of the younger years, and we believe it helped bridge some of the gaps in communication. We plan to continue to incorporate socials to help serve the purpose of networking between students.
We have also strived to continue to be a part of the community. We attended the “KC Fun-and-Fitness Day,” a community-wide health fair, for the second year in a row. We had multiple games and competitive races and prizes for the kids to enjoy and to keep them moving. We are going to continue to help out the community with a couple of events that are coming up around the Kansas City area. The Kansas City Medical Society is taking part in multiple health events involving educating students about different career pathways and utilizing interactive events to do so. Our Chapter has decided to take part in some of these events as well. We look forward to giving back to the community in this way!
Finally, we are excited to participate in the MSMA White Coat Rally Day at the end of February, as well as attend the AMA-MSS Region 2 Conference in our hometown of Kansas City. We anticipate many of our members to attend the conference. This month we will also be having Robert Bondurant, Executive Director of the Missouri Physicians Health Program, as a guest speaker at our meeting. It has been a great year thus far and we are enthusiastic about the events planned for the rest of the year.
Washington University School of Medicine
Last year’s strong Chapter leadership set a firm foundation for us at Washington University. This year, we continued to grow as a group, broadening our reach into our own community and working to strengthen ties throughout the state.
Our Chapter of the MSMA-MSS started the year eager by signing up nearly a third of the incoming first-year class, and we were happy to induct 34 new members. Our first-year students have been enthusiastic and passionate about organized medicine. They have quickly signed up to attend conferences at the national level, showing a great presence at the AMA Interim Conference in Dallas, TX, and have shown keen interest in continuing their momentum in Kansas City this April. They are excited to contribute this coming year by organizing advocacy efforts, participating in committees, and writing resolutions.
In November, we hosted the 2nd Annual Missouri Interim Conference. The event served as a meaningful orientation for incoming and current student members on how to effectively advocate. Edmond Cabbabe, MD, taught budding advocates proper parliamentary procedure and we held a mock HOD session. The day culminated in a live, on-campus debate about Medicaid expansion. We featured State Senator Bob Onder, MD, as a panelist, who spoke on record about Medicaid expansion for the first time that evening. Many thanks to Dr. Cabbabe and Haley Wansing for helping with the event’s success this year.
We sent six students to Dallas, TX, for the AMA Interim Conference, where Washington University presented a resolution regarding medical student loan interest rates. Our members took on leadership roles in the Committee on Legislation and Advocacy, and the Committee on Economics and Quality in Medicine. This past summer, one of our members was elected Vice-Chairperson of the MSMAMSS, Steve Ekman, and he provided excellent direction in mentoring our students into taking leadership roles. The first-year students who participated shared their enthusiasm for advocacy and organized medicine with the rest of their class, who are now signing up in numbers for the White Coat Rally in Jefferson City, and the MSS Advocacy Day in Washington, DC.
Perhaps our biggest success this year, with great support from the St. Louis Metropolitan Medical Society’s (SLMMS) leadership, was the establishment of a Medical Student Section within SLMMS. SLMMS has created a voting seat reserved for a medical student on their council, to be shared by one student from Washington University and one student from Saint Louis University. We are incredibly excited about this partnership, and hope that we can now fully integrate St. Louis’ medical student body into organized medicine within our own community. SLMMS has been a huge help in getting our students excited about advocacy and have coached us in writing our resolutions. We hope to share our perspectives as students in their conversations. We would like to sincerely thank the SLMMS leadership, particularly Past President Joseph Craft, MD; President Michael Stadnyk, MD; Councilor Ramona Behshad, MD; and Executive Vice President Dave Nowak for all of their help and support in this effort.
Finally, our board has continued to host other lectures, talks, and symposiums for members of the St. Louis medical student community to foster discussion about health policy and other relevant topics. We screened this year’s TEDMED talks, held blood drives, and introduced students to the matching process. As a Chapter, we have continued Washington University and MSMA’s traditions of cultivating health leaders. We are excited and grateful and are thrilled to continue it into the coming year.