SMA Coordinating Committee on Advocacy

SMA Coordinating Committee on Advocacy

Conference Call

January 8, 2013

Those in attendance were Dr. Steven Strode, Chair, Dr. Mark Kilgus, Dr. David Avery, Dr. Mason Jett, Dr. Luis Alvarado, Mrs. Barbara Blanton, SMA Alliance, Luke Hartsfield, Executive Director, Kendra Blackmon, Advocacy Coordinator, Kathy McLendon, Quality Coordinator, Nancy Mullins, Leadership and Professional Identity Coordinator, Vonette Scott, Membership Coordinator. Not in attendance were Dr. Janie Teschner, Dr. John Potomski, Dr. Steve Kuplesky, Dr. Ester Hare, Dr. Albert Britton, Dr. Paul Crawford, Dr. Richard Mendel and Dr. James Kramer.

Dr. Strode welcomed everyone to the call and thanked them for their continued membership and their leadership and dedication shown by being on the committee and the call. Dr. Strode provided a brief update and background information on where SMA stands regarding advocacy. He stated he was very proud SMA was reengineering itself and a lot of organizations, including medical associations, would eventually shrink and die if they do not evolve and that is not the direction for SMA. On the other hand, it has not been well defined as to what the new SMA will be much less the Advocacy focus for SMA efforts. The challenge lies in that there is not a map available which lays out what the committee is expected to do or what type of advocacy position SMA needs to take. This does provide the flexibility for the committee to explore, brainstorm, and define what advocacy is to SMA.

Dr. Strode then asked each person to provide a brief synopsis about themselves, their involvement in SMA and their hopes for the association. He mentioned the committee would not have the advantage of a face-to-face meeting, but felt it was important to at least learn a little about each other. He asked Dr. Jett to begin.

Dr. Jett stated he became involved through the Alliance as his wife was asked to participate on a committee. When it was suggested he could become a member as well, he did and decided SMA was probably one of the best organizations to which he had ever belonged and decided to remain as a member. He stated SMA has been quite beneficial to him as a general surgeon although there is very little general surgery CME provided at this time. He stated he benefits from the other topics offered, for example, diabetes and hypertension, which he would not normally learn about but which his patients are dealing with daily. The best is the collegiality. He hopes SMA will find a way in the future to bring back more of the opportunities for collegiality at meetings. He suggested we investigate smaller venues for meetings and possibly some private assistance from leaders or members in the area who may be willing to host a function in their home or a local country club.

Dr. Avery stated he was glad to be part of the committee and it was nice to be part of an organization which is a little smaller and more collegial. On the other side of this was his involvement with the AAFP where he served for 3 years on the Board representing over 100,000 members. He stated they dealt with advocacy issues and other issues relating to family medicine. He mentioned he had spent a long time trying to work with AMA as a delegate from West Virginia and AAFP. He is looking forward to working with an organization which is smaller and more collegial and offers personal interaction with other specialties. In AMA this would result in conflicts. And even though he loves AAFP and it is a great organization, due to its size, it is not easy to respond to member requests. SMA is small enough to allow for meetings to be held in smaller venues at good locations, with good interaction among physician attendees both on advocacy, and interaction among attendees. These type meetings could provide education about what is happening in the world without taking a major position versus just having some good, general CME from which everyone can learn. He stated he has high hopes of making this a worthwhile venture and feels it can happen.

Dr. Alvarado stated this was his first time to serve on a committee. He practices Internal Medicine in Franklinton, Louisiana and has worked on advocacy with the American College of Physicians (ACP), Louisiana State Medical Society and various local societies. He would like to find a unified goal between all societies as to what is being done for private practice protection. There is already some delineation from ACA trying to get timelines and determine specifics for each practice, including solo, group, hospital, medical schools and universities. In this way, he hopes to unify ideas coming from different boards.

Dr. Kilgus is from Roanoke, Virginia where he chairs the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine for the new Virginia Tech School of Medicine and the Carilion Clinic. After reviewing the Marketry presentation, he responded to a couple of the slides. First, advocacy is and should be a major reason for existence of the SMA. Advocacy includes education of both physicians and the public but should not be exclusively education. Political advocacy is necessary. With that in mind, SMA cannot be all things to all people. Advocacy requires taking a stand on issues. The AMA has failed physicians and patients – it has not represented the interests of physicians or the patients’ physicians serve. We could become the “other medical Association” and have as a goal to be an alternative and legitimate advocate for physicians and allied health professionals. This would require a clear platform developed and approved by the board perhaps with membership input. Dr. Kilgus believes SMA can actually increase their membership by more clearly defining themselves and by casting a smaller net. There will be more member enthusiasm. As the AMA discovered, it is difficult to advocate when you do not know for what you stand. Dr. Ed Hill at the SMA Summit laid down a nice foundation of 12 principal goals that could guide SMA advocacy and help create the largest political lobby of physicians (therefore the patients we serve.) Based on the SMA platform, each specialty area would create a specific platform complete with mission and vision of the organization and approved by the board.

Each specialty area could produce a monthly newsletter in a bullet point format and consistent with platform. Dr. Kilgus offered to SMA the services of 50 plus faculty at Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine to produce a monthly electronic newsletter on psychiatric news. He stated there are many psychiatrists who do not fully embrace the APA and its politics.

The SMA could develop alternative resources to satisfy the Maintenance of Certification requirements for Psychiatry, approved by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology.

Dr. Kilgus stated his department sponsors a day-long psychiatry conference, where respected experts are brought in to discuss a relevant area of neuropsychiatry in order to update their faculty. This will be the 7th year for the conference. He stated it is also an opportunity for alumni to network around research and job opportunities. Dr. Kilgus stated his department would be willing to continue to sponsor this conference but have it fall under the umbrella and nameplate of SMA (at no financial burden to the Association) as a forum for psychiatry advocacy and CME.

Dr. Strode thanked Dr. Kilgus for the generous offers and called on Mrs. Blanton.

Mrs. Blanton is the SMA Alliance Vice-President of Doctors’ Day. She has been an active member of the Alliance since the early eighties. She has served in many leadership positions including vice-councilor, councilor and committee chair. She is involved with several organizations in her community and holds a good position in Tennessee. She is a past Senator for the state of Mississippi so is very familiar with politics. She is interested in the comments made by the other committee members and feels it is good to have such a good mix of specialties serving on the committee. She appreciates being included on the committee and she and the Alliance are willing to do whatever is asked of them.

Dr. Strode commented the Marketry report was very smart and the research group did an excellent job. He asked Mr. Luke Hartsfield to comment on the direction of SMA or what he would like to see the committees do in the coming year, specifically this committee.

Mr. Hartsfield stated he found the comments very interesting including Dr. Jett’s comments on bringing back the collegiality in meetings as this is something SMA would like to see happen as well. He mentioned next year’s Annual Scientific Assembly would carry more clinical content based on review of comments by attendees and information garnered from the Marketry report. He stated the Annual Scientific Assembly was reduced in size due to lack of outside support, increased expenses and decreases in attendance. Mr. Hartsfield stated the SMA goal for the Assembly is to maintain a format that meets both the educational needs of the physician attendees, young and old, and offers opportunities for collegiality and camaraderie that have been so important to SMA and its members throughout our over 100 year history while creating a profitable scenario as opposed to the losses experienced over the last 20 or so years.

Mr. Hartsfield stated making the Annual Assembly and the other resort-based conferences financially powerful would require a reduction in expenses including reducing the number of faculty. He liked Dr. Jett’s suggestion about asking members and leadership in the geographic area of the meetings to host social activities in their home or maybe their country club. This would be much less expensive than we would experience in a hotel environment.

Mr. Hartsfield stated it was important for the Committee to know that Dr. Gosney had phoned and was very interested in what the Committee decided with regard to the Advocacy direction for SMA. He stated he would be communicating with Dr. Gosney following this call as to what was decided. He stated he agreed with Dr. Kilgus’ comment about finding something specific to all specialties as being a good platform. He is confident that as the committee continues to operate, it will identify and refine how, as an organization, we can proceed. Mr. Hartsfield stated he and the staff are here to serve the physician members of the association as the leadership is here to represent the desires of the membership toward whichever direction is chosen. He stated the SMA office will support the committee in each and every effort through work at the office and whatever financial resource is available.

Dr. Strode stated he had served on the Council for the past 4 years and there have been many conversations by the Council as a whole about advocacy in SMA. There is definitely an agreement we should be advocating for our membership, for physicians in all specialties and for our patients, however there is not an overall consensus. Certainly there are those, including Dr. Gosney, who echoes Dr. Kilgus’ comments about political advocacy. The AMA’s current situation leaves a potential void for a multispecialty organization of physicians to step up and fill. If Dr. Gosney were here he would be strongly advocating for a political advocacy stance. There are others who speak more in terms of education, not only for physicians, but of patients and the public. Advocating for better health through better knowledge and equipping any of those populations to do a better job themselves.

Dr. Strode stated it would be difficult to provide Dr. Gosney with a clear direction by the end of the evening because even the Council in its discussions on the topic has not been able to determine the appropriate direction and in the past several months has not had time to discuss in great detail due to the re-engineering tasks. For SMA to progress and do the best it can, the committee needs to discuss and present an idea or ideas of the direction of advocacy for the Association.

Dr. Strode mentioned one issue presented in the Marketry report was SMA as an organization is dismally inadequate as far as communication. Communication will be a vital part of what we do in the next month and certainly the advocacy on behalf of patients and educating patients, and physicians regarding the PPACA through communication efforts is going to be very clear.

Dr. Jett mentioned physicians tend to put in a tremendous number of hours to keep their practices running and periodically need to take a respite to rejuvenate. He stated the tours and cruises offered by SMA Tours was a good way to relax and maybe SMA could use this service as a means to advocate for physicians maintaining a healthy balance in their lives.

Mrs. Mullins stated SMA has a unique feature in that it has its own in-house, full service travel agency. SMA is able to offer leisure destinations that are strictly designed for the seasoned professional traveler to getaway, regroup and enjoy life.

At Mr. Hartsfield’s request, Mrs. McLendon spoke briefly about the CME cruises SMA offered in 2011 utilizing the Holland America Cruise Line. She stated each cruise carried a different CME topic and visited different locations including Alaska, New England and the Caribbean. She stated although those attending had a wonderful time, there was not adequate participation to continue offering the cruises. This was due in part to insufficient funds for marketing and inadequate time for planning and developing.

Mrs. Blanton was asked to provider her opinion on the possibility of successfully advocating in a political arena without having to have to substantial financial support. She stated the best way to do this was becoming involved on a personal level with the Senators and Representatives within each state by volunteering on campaigns, attending sponsored events and communicating. She was asked if this would change in the coming era of super PACs and responded it was still best to have a personal relationship with the state congressmen. She stated it was all about communication, communication, communication.