MMA News Now
Scenes from the 2010 Annual Meeting
Take a look at who attended the MMA's 157th Annual Meeting in this slide show.
New President to Focus on Physician Wellness
During her inaugural address, MMA President Patricia J. Lindholm, M.D., said she intends to make physician well-being the focus of her presidency. Lindholm said the literature indicates that physicians, residents, and medical students frequently suffer from feelings of stress, burnout, and depression. And she said she’s personally observed colleagues suffer—often alone—as they dealt with the stresses of managing patients, a practice, and their personal life. “We have many individual physicians who cannot share with anyone, not even family members, the kinds of ordeals and stresses we go through,” she said.
Lindholm also noted that despite being experts in health, physicians often don’t use healthy strategies to cope with the emotional, spiritual, and physical challenges they face. “It is true that many of us don’t take care of ourselves,” she said. “Many of us don’t even have our own physicians.”
During her year as president, Lindholm hopes to develop and implement a physician-wellness strategy within the MMA. She has already formed a task force that plans to survey members about physician wellness needs and issue recommendations about how the MMA can best assist members. The January issue of Minnesota Medicine will explore the topic as well.
“We need to intervene,” she told the audience, “and we need to be there for our colleagues. We need to care.”
Patricia Lindholm at a Glance
Medical School: George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Washington, D.C., 1983
Residency: St. Luke’s Hospital, Milwaukee, 1983-1986
Lindholm practices family medicine at Lakes Region Healthcare Clinic Services (formerly the Fergus Falls Medical Group). She has been an MMA member since 1990, during which time she has served two terms on the MMA Board of Trustees and represented the MMA on the Healthy Minnesota Steering Committee, the MN Community Measurement Board, and the MMIC board. She served as president of the Minnesota Academy of Family Physicians in 1999-2000.
MMA House of Delegates Elects Officers
The MMA House of Delegates elected the following officers for 2010-2011:
President-Elect
Lyle J. Swenson, M.D., specialist in interventional cardiology and cardiovascular diseases, East Metro Cardiology, St. Paul.
Secretary-Treasurer
David E. Westgard, M.D., family physician and chief medical officer, Olmsted Medical Center, Rochester.
Speaker of the House
Mark Liebow, M.D., internal medicine physician, Division of General Internal Medicine at Mayo Clinic, Rochester.
Vice Speaker of the House
Robert Moravec, M.D., family and emergency medicine physician, St. Joseph’s Hospital, St. Paul.
MMA Board of Trustees
Elected to the board were Carl E. Burkland, M.D., West Metro Trustee District; and Fatima Jiwa, M.B.ChB., at-large member. Re-elected were Cindy Firkins Smith, M.D., Southwest Trustee District; David C. Agerter, M.D., Southeast Trustee District; Robert A. Koshnick, Jr., M.D., Northwest Trustee District; and Michael B. Ainslie, M.D., West Metro Trustee District.
AMA Delegation
Re-elected were John M. Van Etta, M.D., St. Luke’s Internal Medicine Associates, Duluth; and Kenneth W. Crabb, M.D., Advanced Specialty Care for Women, St. Paul.
AMA Alternate Delegates
Re-elected were Blanton Bessinger, M.D., retired pediatric cardiologist; Paul Matson, M.D., Orthopedic and Fracture Clinic, Mankato; and Ben Whitten, M.D., Abbott Northwestern General Medicine Associates, Edina.
Minnesota Physicians Set Policy
The MMA’s House of Delegates took action on about 40 resolutions at the 157th Annual Meeting last month.
Among the resolutions that were adopted were these, which call for the MMA to Add a position to the MMA Board of Trustees for a member of the Young Physicians Section;
Support the use of transparent risk-adjustment mechanisms in physician or practice tiering, peer grouping, and public reporting of performance;
Advocate for the development of an online clearinghouse for information about health plan prior-authorization requirements;
Encourage appropriate organizations to explore how best to diagnose and treat dementia and to further study the financial and health impacts of early diagnosis;
Support the ability of patients to select their own physician and examine the extent of the problem of physician nonselection and deselection from health plan networks;
Establish a task force to develop strategies to address the issues and challenges facing independent medical practices;
Support the certification of midwives by the American College of Nurse Midwives or the American Midwifery Certification Board, and recognize the importance of the certification of freestanding birth centers by the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care, the Joint Commission, or the Commission for the Accreditation of Birth Centers;
Encourage ongoing education about efforts such as the MN 10 by 10 Initiative, which work to extend the lives of people with serious mental illness;
Join the Safe Schools for All Coalition and support legislation that would require school boards in Minnesota to adopt antibullying policies and provide staff training on preventing and responding to bullying; and Provide information to physicians about over-the-counter and direct-to-consumer genetic testing kits, potential issues related to informed consent, and information about the availability of genetic counselors.
Other House Action
The House voted not to approve a resolution calling for the MMA to oppose mandates requiring individuals to have health insurance coverage. The House also voted not to adopt a resolution calling for the MMA to support a single-payer health care system.
Physicians Honor Their Peers
Distinguished Service Award The MMA’s highest award went to Douglas Wood, M.D., of Mayo Clinic, for his involvement in the national health care reform debate and lasting contributions to health care reform efforts in Minnesota. Wood played an important role in shaping the MMA’s own reform vision, Physicians’ Plan for a Healthy Minnesota, and helped promote that vision at the Minnesota Legislature. He is a member of the MMA Work Group to Advance Health Care and serves on the state of Minnesota’s Health Care Access Commission work group on payment reform. As the leader of Mayo Clinic’s Center for Innovation, Wood is working on a three-year plan to transform the way medical care is delivered to southeast Minnesota.
Community Service Award
Richard Horecka, M.D., an internist in Benson, Minnesota, for his economic development work for the city of Benson. Horecka joined the city’s Economic Development Commission in 1987 and has been active in that organization’s efforts to bring jobs to the area. He also has personally helped finance businesses in Benson including a hotel and meeting center, and worked to preserve the local movie theater.
Minority Affairs Meritorious Service Award
Irene Sia, M.D., an internist at Mayo Clinic, for improving the health of diverse populations in Rochester. In 2005, she established the Hawthorne Health Initiative through alliances with Rochester-area health care service agencies, academic institutions, health professions education programs, community agencies, and volunteers. Sia worked with the Hawthorne Education Center, which provides ESL services, to implement a tuberculosis prevention and treatment program. The initiative has resulted in students at the center being tested and treated for TB.
Physician Leadership in Quality Award
William Nersesian, M.D., chief medical officer at Fairview Physician Associates, for leading multiple clinical quality initiatives that have resulted in improved care at Fairview and for inspiring others to advance clinic quality and safety. Nersesian has helped launch the CAN DO program, which promotes healthy lifestyles; a statewide smoking-cessation program; and a program that increased use of generic drugs at Fairview. He is also leading an initiative that encourages the use of clinical innovations such as patient registries that enhance care coordination.
Physician Communicator Award
David Hilden, M.D., an internist at Hennepin County Medical Center, for hosting the weekly radio program “Healthy Matters” on WCCO-AM and WLTE-FM in Minneapolis. This hour-long program features interviews with clinicians and provides listeners with advice about health care concerns.
Medical Student Award
Elizabeth Vogel, a fourth-year student at the University of Minnesota Medical School, for serving as vice chair of the MMA Medical Student Section from 2008 to 2009. She has been the medical student representative on the MMA Board of Trustees since 2008 and has represented medical students at AMA national meetings and at the MMA annual meeting. In addition, she has been a volunteer at the Minnesota Science Museum since 2007.
President’s Awards
Frank Cerra, M.D., dean of the University of Minnesota Medical School, for his leadership in guiding the future of Minnesota health care at the University of Minnesota.
Nicholas Reuter, M.D., a hematologist and oncologist at CentraCare in St. Cloud, for his support of and service to the MMA Foundation and his extensive humanitarian and volunteer work, including organizing blood drives, mentoring high school and college students interested in medicine, and providing medical care to the homeless.
Linda Van Etta, M.D., an infectious disease specialist at St. Luke’s Infectious Disease Associates in Duluth, for her service as a clinician, educator, and researcher. She has been an MMA member since 1982 and has won numerous awards including Clinical Teacher of the Year from the University of Minnesota Medical School, Duluth Campus; Physician of the Year from St. Luke’s Foundation; and the John B. Sanford Community Service Award from Lake Superior Medical Society.