President's Message
Posted August 22, 2009 by Alan Semine, M.D., MRS President
The Massachusetts Radiological Society has worked on behalf of all radiologists and radiation oncologists in the Commonwealth since it was formed in 1965. Members of the Executive Committee, along with members at large, volunteer their time and energy addressing many issues that require our attention. Recently we have begun to face more serious challenges. As the current president of our society, I believe that it will not be possible for the society to affect these changes without the active and energetic participation of all practicing and future radiologists.
Health care reform is happening at both the state and federal levels. How medicine is practiced will change. And it will affect how our specialty is practiced. While it is natural to feel unsettled by any change, we need to recognize that we can still participate in shaping the reforms as they are crafted. This is an extremely important opportunity. The only regret we can ultimately have is not to have invested the effort when we could.
We need to educate ourselves about the nature of the efforts. We need to understand the motivations and the objectives of health care reform. We need to know who is working on the proposals and what they are considering. Finally we have to decipher how the reforms will affect imaging services to our patients and the practice of radiology.
We must contribute to shaping health care reform. We need to determine what measures should be implemented to accomplish meaningful reform that would improve our ability to care for our patients, and identify the measures that are fraught with unintended consequences. The objective must remain focused on protecting our patients’ safety and interests, while reining in costs. We are actually very well positioned to provide substantive guidance.
We then have to participate in the dialogue. Having opinions and constructive ideas is valuable but we need to contact and communicate with our legislators. In fact, we need to get comfortable doing things we have not done before. We need to reach out to the communities we serve and educate them about who we are and what we do. The elected officials attempting to craft a new format for delivering health care are counting on our input. If we let others provide input while we fail to participate, we are neglecting our responsibility to our patients, not just to ourselves.
Once the changes are enacted, we will need to adapt to practicing in the new environment. We will need to learn how best to collaborate with colleagues in other specialties including primary care to do what is best for our patients and make sure that our services are valued appropriately and that our patients are getting appropriate care.
Every radiologist needs to recognize the importance of participating personally in this process. It will not be possible for the ACR or the Massachusetts Radiological Society to undertake the challenges and accomplish what is needed without grassroots support. Please log in and consider helping in the many efforts that will be needed.
Thank you,
Alan Semine, MD