Thursday, November 20, 2008 9:09 PM

BROWARD COUNTY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION

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And so, Ladies and Gentleman, I would suggest to you that the next time someone asks you why they should become a member of the BCMA or any branch of organized medicine, you tell them that because in an age where complacency, apathy and cynicism threaten to become the norm, showing resolve to stand up for what you believe in, can the most heroic act of all.

This can perhaps best be summed up by one of my favorite quotes and teachings of one of the great rabbinical scholars of Jewish thought, Hillel, which goes as follows:

"If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? If not me, then who? If not now, when?"

Over the next few years, our profession will face perhaps some of the greatest challenges it has ever faced, as healthcare reform promises to be front and center on the national stage. We will be asked to provide care for an ever growing patient population, with a finite number of resources, and with increasing pressure to answer to corporate and financial interests whose focus is the bottom line, and not the line on the EKG monitor. We will be pressured to alter our practices further still to meet the requirements of "experts" and bureaucrats who will claim they know what is best for our patients. It is in these moments that membership matters. It is in these moments that showing up counts.

We must remember that it is not the title of anesthesiologist, dermatologist, oncologist, orthopedic or cardiac surgeon, internist, pediatrician, or even obstetrician that defines us. It is all of us together that define the role of "Healer". But we can only do that when we stand together. Lest the outside forces that threaten to act as intermediaries and corrupt the sanctity of the doctor-patient relationship, and who seek to divide the house of medicine think we lack the financial or political courage to stand up for what is right, physicians must stand together with one voice, one goal and one connection. Together, we can all be heroes!

Thank you, good night and G-d Bless.