Month: May 2019

The last few months have caused me to reflect on advocacy and being an advocate. I have spent my entire life watching politics and simply not understanding why people would want to enter that realm. However, since January I have gone to Tallahassee to talk to legislators with the Florida Chapter of the American College of Surgeons and to Washington DC to speak to legislator’s offices with the American College of Surgeons. I have also become engaged with the Florida Medical Association and am a proud graduate of the Karl Altenburger Leadership Academy in 2018.

What changed to push me into these pursuits? I think there are two reasons:

1. Everyone has likely heard some version of ‘If you are not at the table, you are on the menu.’ I think this is true. If you are not providing a voice to any particular problem or issue the people in Tallahassee or Washington, DC are going to make the policy based on the information they have. Sharing our insights as professionals is invaluable in helping to shape public policy. Part of it, for me, is never wanting to feel like I did not do my part. We may not get what we want, but at least it is not because I did not attempt contribute my part.
2. Almost everyone has benefited from advocacy or having an advocate at the local level. I have had people advocating for me at every step of my career. In particular when I got into practice, one of the more senior surgeons took a special interest in me as a person and helped me develop my career in the operating room, in my office, and helped guide me into leadership positions within the hospital and our medical group. This is one way I feel like I can help to pay back the people that advocated on my behalf is to help try to advocate for surgeons everywhere.

There are a lot of ways to get involved with advocacy. For surgeons, you should leverage your local chapter and the national chapter. Save the dates, March 28-31, 2020 for next year.

For physicians in Florida, consider being a part of the FMA.

It is only appropriate that I use this space today to say Happy Mother’s Day!

• From my grandmother, Honey, I learned to pray at night before bed.
• From my other grandmother, Maw-maw, I learned the importance of being a life-long learner and it pained me to see Alzheimer’s take that away from her
• From my mother (now Mimi) I learned how to be responsible because I was the oldest of her five children and learned how to help take care of the others.
• From my mother in law (now Nanny), I learned how to make someone feel special as she accepted me into her family with no hesitation
• From my wife, Mary Beth, I have gotten to watch the pure joy of being a mother and I am so blessed to share my life with her.

This week I have had some major fear of missing out (FOMO). There were three national meetings that I would love to have attended, but unfortunately it was my turn to take call so they were not to be.

The first meeting was the American Society of Breast Surgeons (ASBrS) Annual Meeting taking place in Dallas, Texas. This is always an exceptionally good meeting where there is quality content for the entire meeting. I always enjoy the meeting and networking at this meeting. Since I now primarily take care of breast cancer and breast diseases, it is extremely high yield for my practice. My partners and I take turns going to this meeting and because I attended last year, I was not able to attend this year. Fortunately, there are a lot of attendees who tweet from this meeting, so at least I have been able to follow along from afar.

The second meeting took place earlier this week and is the Surgeons as Leaders Course put on by the American College of Surgeons in Durham, NC. I wanted to apply for this meeting this year, but as it is taking place almost at the same time as the ASBrS meeting, I knew I would not be able to attend. Every participant I have known who has attended has nothing but positive things to say about this meeting. I believe surgeons make really good leaders and should take the mantle of leadership, so as long as the dates work out, I am planning to apply to attend the meeting next year.

In addition to surgical leadership, the American Association of Physician Leaders annual meeting is taking place this weekend in Washington, DC. I have not had the opportunity to attend one of these meetings in person, but I would like to in the future. I was able to get my MBA through this organization, so I would like to attend a meeting in the future.

The truth is I always have FOMO related to national and regional meetings. I wish I could attend all of them but time and finances keep that from happening. I have long said that if I could figure out how to make a living going to these meetings and learning I would do it. There are so many good meetings that I could probably attend a meeting of some sort every week of the year. At least I have Twitter so I can follow along with the meetings I can not attend in person.