The Value of Membership - Physicians Who Care
Mohan Mallam, M.D., President
San Bernardino County Medical Society
Final of a four-part web series.
If asked to describe the members of our local medical society in just three succinct words, I would respond with “Physicians Who Care.” During my long association with organized medicine I have come to experience the San Bernardino County Medical Society and the California Medical Association as organizations of like-minded professional physicians who consistently put their patients, their profession, their community and families at the top of their priorities.
We know that the early founders of organized medicine recognized the value of membership. They understood that there is influence in numbers; where one person cannot achieve much, many can achieve a miracle. In June 1934 the AMA House of Delegates Secretary emphasized that the county society is the backbone of medical organization and medical stability. Robert Borchak, MD, a former president of the Memphis-Shelby County Medical Society said, “This is not just a social organization. It is not just a political outlet. It is not just an open ended debating society. We are an organization of physicians - men and women, of every race, ethnic group and creed - devoted to our profession and determined to pass it on to future generations in a condition as good or better than it was passed on to us by our predecessors.”
This remains true today because physicians care. SBCMS members are:
Physicians who care about our community. This medical society formed and grew the Inland Wellness Information Network (IWIN) and its Healthy Lifestyles Award Program for elementary school children, the Live and Then Give organ donor awareness program, and our Physicians Speakers Bureau. Our society was the genesis and remains involved with the San Bernardino Sheriff Medical Reserve Corps, the School Nurse Physician Collaborative, the Southern California Medical Museum, and our new online public directory, Find a Doctor. In years past the Tel-Med information line, our physician referral program, the African-American Health Initiative, and the local Blood Bank had their roots in the medical society, and we have and continue to spearhead many other long and short-term health programs and initiatives according to the needs of the community.
Physicians who are passionate about our profession. When you join SBCMS, you join a network of nearly 1,700 San Bernardino County physicians and over 35,000 California physicians (CMA) who are working together to achieve a unified health front and fight against unfair payment practices, restrictions on physician autonomy and more. We partner with CMA to offer our members unique economic, legal and legislative advocacy: the California Physicians’ Legal Handbook, CMA On-Call, the Legal Helpline, reimbursement assistance and more, plus a strong government relations program including CALPAC and LOPAC, CMA Legislative Day, the California Health Care Leadership Academy, and the CMA House of Delegates. Our website, www.sbcms.org, has further information on these valuable resources.
Physicians who care about the future of medicine. We share Dr. Borchak’s determination to “pass our profession on to future generations in a condition as good or better than it was passed on to us by our predecessors.” Our mission, similar to that envisioned by our founding fathers when SBCMS was organized in 1878, has evolved and will serve to carry us far into the future. In partnership with CMA, we continue to support medical research and innovations that will improve the quality of our patients’ lives. We support anti-tobacco education and immunization programs, energy conservation efforts, environmental protection of public areas, and the future necessity of high environmental quality as a major public health concern.
Physicians who care to teach. Medical Society members are educators and professors of medicine teaching medical students and fellow physicians at universities in the Inland Empire and neighboring Southern California communities. Our members serve missions in far-away countries where they are instructing physicians how to better their patients’ lives, where they are establishing medical clinics to care for the poor and indigent and re-establishing medical care in areas devastated by acts of terror and nature. "Adopt a Village" is my favorite community service project. I sponsored several "safe drinking water plants" and health camps in my own village in India. The gratification expressed by villagers benefiting from these projects is unbelievable! Here at home, SBCMS and CMA sponsor countless workshops and training seminars for physicians and their office personnel as educational resources for their practices.
Finally, SBCMS members are physicians who care about other physicians. We know that substance abuse, depression, and career burnout can impact anyone, including doctors. A project of the California Medical Association and the California Dental Association, The Physicians' and Dentists' Confidential Line is a new project of the CMA and the California Dental Association designed to help impaired doctors and dentists help themselves before their lives and livelihood are put into jeopardy. Our Medical Society also supports the Annual Statewide Physicians Well-Being Conference sponsored by CMA and the Riverside County Medical Association.
Call the Medical Society offices, (951) 787-7700 or visit our website at www.sbcms.org if you have any questions or desire additional information on any of our projects and services. I invite you to join me and experience fully the value of membership as one of the Physicians Who Care.
