wcpm july 2015

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Saint Dorothea Lynde DixBy Assad Meymandi, MD, PhD, DLFAPA

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Commencement AddressWilliam Peace UniversityBy Assad Meymandi, MD, PhD, DLFAPA

What Is In a Pen Name?By L. Jarrett Barnhill, MD

Publisher

Editor

Wake County Medical Society

Officers and Executive

Council

Council Members

WCMS Alliance

Co- Presidents

Wake County Medical Society

Paul Harrison

2015 President | Andrew Wu, MD Secretary | Robert Munt, MDTreasurer | Robert Munt, MD Past President | Patty Pearce, MD Founding Editor | Assad Meymandi, MD, PhD, DLFAPA

Terry Brenneman, MDMaggie Burkhead, MDWarner L. Hall, MDKen Holt, MDAssad Meymandi, MD, PhD, DLFAPARobert Munt, MDPatricia Pearce, MDDerek Schroder, MDMichael Thomas, MD Brad Wasserman, MDAndrew Wu, MD

Barb SavageKaren Albright

WCPM

Wake County Medical Society2500 Blue Ridge Road, Suite 330

Raleigh, NC 27607 Phone: 919.792.3644

Fax: 919.510.9162 [email protected]

www.wakedocs.org

“The Wake County Physician Magazine is an instrument of the Wake County Medical Society; however, the views expressed are not necessarily the opinion of the Editorial Board or the Society.”

July 2015

contributors

L. Jarrett Barnhill, MD is a professor of Psychiatry at the UNC School of Medicine and the director of the Developmental Neuropharmacology Clinic within the Department of Psychiatry. He is a Distinguished Fellow in the American Psychiatric Association and Fellow in the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

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Assad Meymandi, MD, PhD, DLFAPA is Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina School of Medicine at Chapel Hill, Distinguished Life fellow American Psychiatric Association, and Founding Editor and Editor-in-Chief, Wake County Physician Magazine (1995-2012). He serves as a Visiting Scholar and lecturer on Medicine, the Arts and Humanities at his alma mater the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health.

Wake County Physician Magazine (WCPM) is a publication for and by the members of the Wake County Medical Society. WCPM is a quarterly publication and is digitately published January, July, April, and October.

All submissions including ads, bio’s, photo’s and camera ready art work for the WCPM should be directed to:

Tina FrostGraphic Editor [email protected] 919.671.3963

Photographs or illustrations:Submit as high resolution 5” x 7” or 8” x 10” glossy prints or a digital JPEG or TIF file at 300 DPI no larger than 2” x 3” unless the artwork is for the cover. Please include names of individuals or subject matter for each image submitted.

Contributing author bio’s and photo requirements: Submit a recent 3” x 5” or 5” x 7” black and white or color photo (snapshots are suitable) along with your submission for publication or a digital JPEG or TIF file at 300 DPI no larger than 2” x 3”. All photos will be returned to the author. Include a brief bio along with your practice name, specialty, special honors or any positions on boards, etc. Please limit the length of your bio to 3 or 4 lines.

Ad Rates and Specifications:Full Page $800 1/2 Page $400 1/4 Page $200

WAKE COUNTY PHYSICIAN | 3

The Wake County Medical Society is inviting its members to write articles for upcoming issues of the Wake County Physician Magazine. Wake County

Medical Society members wishing to write an article for publication are asked to submit a brief five sentence proposal. Proposed article summaries could focus on your first person accounts of the personal side of practicing medicine (e.g., a patient overcoming all odds and achieving a positive outcome, experience with grief/ overcoming grief, your best day practicing medicine, or care management success stories, etc.) or any other human interest story that might appeal to our readership- keeping in mind that anything resembling promotion of a current practice or practitioner, or taking a political stance would not be useable, with the final say on such matters resting with the editorial board. Please email your brief proposal to Paul Harrison, editor, by September 15, 2015 at [email protected]. The plan is to begin publishing member articles in the July 2015 issue, which will be posted on our website. Thanks!”

(Editor’s Note: Below is the Commencement address the writer delivered to the 2015 graduating class of William Peace University, Raleigh, NC, May 2, 2015)

Mr. Chairman, members of the Board of Trustees, Madam President, honored guests, members of the faculty, fellow students, Ladies and Gentlemen:

I take the podium’s prerogative to ask for a moment of silence honoring the memory of my good friend, the late Trent Ragland, Jr., a former trustee of this beloved institution…. Thank you

So, you graduated from college. Congratulations! You have been through a lot of graduations. You graduated from pre-kindergarten. You graduated from kindergarten, then from elementary school, middle school, high school, and now from college. But I submit that you have graduated more times than you know. You and I were born as helpless babies who could not survive without the nurturing,

care and love of our parents, especially our mothers. When a newborn is hungry (for the science majors, that is driven by low blood sugar, below 70 mg percent) the baby screams. “Mama is coming,” and she brings the bottle or the breast. This goes on day and night until something miraculous–and I choose the word miraculous advisedly—it miraculously happens around age week to week and week and half. Let me explain this miracle: when the baby gets hungry and screams and while mother is saying “Mama is coming,” the baby equates the voice of the mother to anticipated gratification and stops screaming momentarily. But if Mama falls asleep, of course the baby resumes screaming. At the ripe old age of 10 days, the anlage or the infrastructure of ego functions are laid. Yes, we all graduated from this stage of extreme narcissism and self- centeredness at the age of 10 days. It is a miracle. Then, you graduated from infancy, learning to sit, to stand, to crawl, to walk, to run, and to separate and individuate, running away from mama only to return and hide behind her skirt.

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Commencement Address William Peace University

Sunday, May 2, 2015

By Assad Meymandi, MD, PhD, DLFAPA*

Games like peak-a-boo reinforce this phase. Then you graduated from childhood. You later graduated from latency phase of growth and development, age seven to twelve, and entered adolescence. You went through adolescence and negotiated the vicissitudes of teen years and graduated into adulthood. And now with the support and continuous love and sacrifice of your parents you are graduating from college as a well- balanced, educated, mature person. The purpose of life is to turn that narcissistic bundle, the newborn baby, into the altruistic and loving adults you all are. Let’s briefly examine the attributes of an altruistic and loving adult. This person for the most part of waking hours is aware that he or she is a child of God. Not the child of a mayor, the child of a governor, the child of a king, the child of a President, a Shah, an Emperor, or an Ayatollah, we are children of God. Do you know of a loftier position in all creation? Being aware of this gift given to us at birth is the essence of Pauline theology of Grace and Christian love. This person for the most part of waking hours has good feelings, happy feelings, and as result has good thoughts and does good deeds. Doing good things is vastly different from being a do-gooder. Doing a good deed is altruistic. Being a do-gooder may be narcissistic and self-serving.

This person is a joyful person. The etymology of the word joy is the Sanskrit word (and Farsi) JOOYE, meaning a running brook. Let me explain: a camel driver crossing the desert in 100 degree shade for several days, reaches an oasis with trees, grass and a running brook of clear cold water. He waters his camels, then takes a fistful of this cold and refreshing water and drinks it and splashes some on his face. The feelings at that moment generated by JOOYE, the running brook, is where JOY comes from. Joy, like a running brook, is constant. It is refreshing. It is life giving… this person is not just happy, but JOYFUL. Happiness is temporary, evanescent, and artificial, while joy is constant, refreshing and life giving… be joyful.

This person makes a pledge, a resolve to be a growing person. What is growth? To me, growth consists of three parts: to know more today

than I did yesterday, to do fewer bad things today than I did yesterday, and to love more today than I did yesterday. Knowing more every day is a demanding and disciplined task. At my age, every night I go to bed, I take an inventory of what I know. I mean sheer knowledge. If I have NOT learned more today than I did yesterday, I get out of the bed and go read my medical, science and humanities journals. You and I must be aware of the responsibility of enriching our cognitive reservoir. Yes, we must know more today than we did yesterday. The sheer act of learning and internalizing knowledge is pure joy. We all do bad things. Good people do bad things. We must take an inventory that we did fewer bad things today than yesterday. This is what Saint Paul theology calls power of redemption. And to be a growing person, we must be more loving today than we were yesterday.

Now, what is love? We love our Aunt Molly, Cousin Bert; we love apple pie and the beach, and BBQ. Love is one of the most confusing words in English lexicon. English language, young, accessible and dynamic as it is, is very short on affective words, feeling words, words that describe feelings. There are dozens of Arabic words whose equivalent in English is one word “love”. It is frustrating to use the same four letter word for the rich reservoir of feelings we experience in our lives. So let me resort to Greek.

In Greek, there are three words for love: Eros, the love involving sex, reproduction and carnal fusing necessary for procreation. Philia, the love we have for our relatives, brothers, cousins, and extended family. But the love I want to focus upon is the third Greek word, Agape, which is the love God has for all of us, and we must learn to have it for all humanity. Let’s focus on Agape, the kind of love that God has for us. It has three parts: a loving person is not abusive to one’s self, a loving person does not use and abuse alcohol, does not smoke, does not use drugs, and does not get fat. The epidemic of obesity in America causes diabetes, cardiovascular disease, back pain, bringing a health care bill approaching 20% of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Obesity is [continued on page 10]


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Does the death of Leonard Nimoy mark the end of Mr.

Spock? There is a long precedent for such questions. In Medieval Europe the idea of “the King is dead, long live the king” acknowledged that the institution outlived the person. I have little doubt that Spock will remain as an institution. So what about Nimoy? As we suspended disbelief, the actor donned two pointed ears, greenish make up, and a Star Fleet uniform as his mask or personae. Star Trek became the dramatic mask that and projected Nimoy/Spock’s voice of reason into a perilous universe. In the mid 1960’s Star Trek was a vehicle through both conscious and unconscious star systems. Now reruns like Hamlet’s father’s ghost still challenge us. After 50 years I am still prone to imagine going “where no man has gone before”- although as Jean-Luc Picard reminds me that “no one” rather the “no man” is more appropriate. But the magic of that theater is still a living metaphor in my life’s adventure.

Samuels Clemens also put on the mask of Mark Twain. As Twain, he gave a distinct voice to American

literature. Ernest Hemingway described Clemens/Twain as THE American novelist. He legitimized colloquial, American English and helped close the door to the literary ideal of imitating British writers. Huck Finn’s voice echoed the rhythms of a river and the people who journeyed on it. But this was no allegory but the painful expression of a boy coming to grips with the true nature of slavery, and his own inner turmoil as he helped a fugitive slave escape to freedom. Huck saw the dehumanizing effect of slavery by looking directly into the desperate but determined face of one slave. He also wrestled with the reality of a social institution sanctioned by the southern interpretation of the Scriptures. This brutal theory blended readily into the belief that slaves were not only property, they were not quite human.

Huck Finn was published in 1884, long after the 13th and 14th amendments were ratified. What was Clemens up to? He equated slavery with racism and issued a warning about its destructive power to both racists and their targets. Huck was unnerved when

he realized that Jim missed his family just like white folks did theirs. Black slaves shouldn’t be able to do that. His epiphany came when he decided to burn in hell rather than turn Jim over as fugitive slave. But Huck spoke in the raw voice of an uneducated boy. His speech was colloquial, peppered with racial epithets. Ironically, “upright people” of the 19th century objected to the use of crude vernacular English. Today we are offended by the racial epithets. Can we look past the brutally of emotionally charged words at the enduring power of Huck painful transformation and Jim’s determination to be free? By the end of the book, Twain wavered and the intensity of his message waned. Yet Huck Finn still haunts us today.

Like Jim and Huck, Clemens and Twain shared a complex cohabitation. Before Huck Finn Samuel Clemens, perhaps like Nimoy, was type cast. It took this controversial book to allow Clemens to speak and transcend Twain’s persona as humourist. But like Huck the metamorphosis of Clemens was incomplete. As he aged Clemens increasingly relied on his mask for psychological strength. Clemens was old,

What Is In a Pen Name?By L. Jarrett Barnhill, MD


lonely and tired. Twain was “immortal”. But who was Mark Twain? Clemens drew his adopted name from a time when as a young man he piloted steamboats on the Mississippi River. “Mark twain” was a depth measurement equivalent to 2 fathoms (12 feet). This was the safe depth for paddle wheelers of the day. But this metaphor carries its own chiastic ambiguity.

Was the water getting deep enough to be safe, or becoming too shallow and increasing the risk of running aground? But there is more from that experience. Twain later lamented that most passengers only saw the surface of the river. The pilot on the other hand, knew its heart and what lay beneath the surface. The novelist became the mask of a river

pilot.

As physicians we are both actors playing roles and writers creating our story. For some, the role is more important than the person inside it. Others divide the role in twain and live in two separate, dissociated worlds. Neither choice answers the question of “am I more than just a physician”? Can any of us answer this with

absolute certainty? Are we typecast by our success on the stage of our medical careers? The answers are by no means easy. For some, our youth was spent following a river fraught with hazards. We survived by sticking to the middle of the channel. As retirement looms can we step away from duty and follow the river meandering downstream?

If we can then will we travel as passengers or pilot the steam boat?

In the twilight of my own career as an academic, I struggle to stay ahead of younger, brighter “children” (residents look younger every year). I sometimes struggle with the ambivalence of an aging teacher wondering if I shouldn’t hold back something to avoid giving

away all of my secret potions. To them I must seem to be an old sand bar in their part of the channel. Yet I often see myself as an old pilot, struggling with the meaning of mark twain- is my water getting deeper or shallower? Am I useful or a subtle burden; a valued teacher or a vestige of another time and place? Hamlet’s famous soliloquy [continued on page 13]

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Saint Dorothea

Lynde DixBy Assad Meymandi, MD, PhD, DLFAPA*

T his is not an essay. It is not a column. It is not a “Monday Musings”, it is not a eulogy

or encomium. It is a love letter, a love letter to a lady whom I have never met. Yet she has become a central part of my life and career. The lady is Dorothea Lynde Dix, born almost a century and a half before me. I first came across her name “Dix” on a plaque in a hospital ward. It was in the late 50’s. I was a medical student at The George Washington University School of Medicine in Washington DC. Medical students rotated through Saint Elizabeth Psychiatric Hospital for clinical clerkship in psychiatry. I was assigned to “Dix” Ward which was an acute care admission ward [Article republished with permission.]

for adults. Little did I know that I would end up in a place called Dorothea Dix Hospital in Raleigh, NC for my psychiatric residency training. Little did I know that someday I would be living on the grounds of DDH when my three sons were born. Little did I know that someday I will be contributing to turning the beautiful 303 acres of land in the middle of downtown Raleigh into a destination park, Dix Park that would benefit not only Raleigh but the entire State of North Carolina. It is obvious that North Carolina will benefit from Dix Park as New York has benefited from the Central Park. A brief Bio:Dorothea Lynde Dix was born on April 4, 1802 in Hampton, Maine. Her father was a fanatic religious man, almost draconian in discipline, which made the sickly Dorothea’s childhood unpleasant. At age 12, little Dorothea left home to live with her grandmother in Boston, and then she went to an aunt in Worcester, Massachusetts. From a very early age, Dorothea was interested in helping people. Afflicted with tuberculosis, she was physically weak. But she over compensated her physical weakness with moral strength, devotion to duty and compassion for the poor and the marginalized.

Dorothea travelled to Europe to get help from British doctors to recover from her deadly affliction. In those days tuberculosis was like Ebola virus or AIDS today. It killed a lot of people. In the course of her travels, on a cold morning in March 1841, she was introduced to the female section of the East Cambridge jail which was full of mentally ill patients. The half-naked inmates, some chained, some in restraints with no beddings or cover, were shivering. The treatment was brutal. The place was extremely dirty with human feces and urine strewn about. The jailer/superintendent told the visibly shaken Dorothea that “the insane do not feel heat or cold.” Dorothea Dix was moved by the sight. She obtained permission to go back and began teaching the inmates Sunday School. Most of the inmates responded

to her attention and kindness. She began a campaign of changing the name from inmate to patients. Her success in changing the names was only marginal.

Career:Dorothea Dix began teaching school at age 14. In 1819, she returned to Boston and founded the Dix Mansion, a school for girls, along with a charity school that poor girls could attend for free. She began writing textbooks. Her most famous book, Conversations on Common Things, published in 1824 is a delight to read. Dorothea was a determined, hardworking and focused person with enormous compassion for the ill, especially for the mentally ill. Tuberculosis had made her weak and often despondent. But she reacted with more vigor and determination to fulfill a mission which she carved for herself, namely improving treatment and living conditions of the mentally ill. In 1848, Dix came to North Carolina to find the condition of care of the mentally ill “despicable”. Through a chance encounter while staying in Raleigh, she met James C. Dobbins of Cumberland County and his wife Louisa. Through her friendship with Louisa, Dorothea persuaded James Dobbins to introduce a bill to create a hospital for the insane, later called Dorothea Dix Hospital. It was her tenacity, discipline, devotion, along with the generosity and thoughtful consideration of NC General Assembly that the land was purchased and the hospital built. Dorothea was a genius in connecting people, identifying and marshalling politicians of influence and persuading them to contribute to her cause. Right in the middle of the Civil War, she lobbied President Lincoln to her cause, creating Saint Elizabeth Hospital in Anacostia, Washington, DC (1855). Dorothea knew of Lincoln’s psychiatric history and his proclivity to mood disorder and depression. She also knew of Mrs. Lincoln’s emotional and mental difficulties.


[continued on page 12]


[Commencement continued from page 4]a very serious form of self-abuse which is not loving. Obesity is a moral issue. The second leg of Agape is not to be abusive to one’s fellow man, regardless of what you do for a living. As a physician, don’t abuse your patients by making them wait for you. For garbage collectors, don’t strew the stuff all over the street, be neat, do not abuse others- including the US government by cheating on taxes. And lastly, the third leg, do not let anyone else abuse you. Learn to say “NO” and mean it. Do not let friends talk you into doing abusive things. Love, like a tripod, has to have all three legs to stand up.

Now, I want to introduce you to three role models who have shown us how to be loving and lovable. These three brilliant stars of the intellectual constellation are Saint Augustine of Hippo (354-430). Saint Augustine was a pagan. He was a brilliant student throughout his entire life, but as he grew up he did a lot of bad things, like stealing from his parents to buy toys and literally purchase acceptance and friendship of his peers, that is to say, to be popular. He used to steal apples from his neighbor’s yard, not because he was hungry, but because it was fun to do. He lied to his mother repeatedly. As he grew up, he sired an illegitimate son by a concubine. He converted into Christianity at age 31 and after a couple of years became a Bishop of the city of Hippo. All this is recorded in his 13 book “Confessions”. The first nine books are autobiographical and the last four exegetical, an analysis of the book of Genesis, the first book of the Old Testament. Augustine wrote more than five million words.

The second role model is the Jewish physician, Rabbi, philosopher and theologian, Moses Maimonides of Cordoba, Rambam, (1135-1204). He,

[continued on page 12]

too, wrote more than five million words. And the third person is the Arab economist, theologian and music advocate, Ibn Khaldoun (1332-1406). Surprisingly, he, too, wrote more than five million words. Islam prohibited music and the arts for fear of inviting and spreading lust into society. Ibn Khaldoun was very much interested in bringing music back to Islam. He knew as an exception singing the passages of the Holy Quran (Bible of the Muslims) called Talavat is acceptable. So he petitioned the ruling Caliph to start a competition singing the text of Quran, just like our Oscars. The competition began in 1352 when he was 20 and continues to this day. All Muslim nations send delegations of singers to these annual competitions. This has played in war, in peace, in famine and in plenty, since 1352. As an aside, another piece of music that has continuously played since its opening night, Christmas Eve 1741, is Handel’s Messiah. On the opening night King George II was in the audience. When the chorale sang the Alleluia Chorus, the king was so moved that he stood up giving an ovation. This is why to this day we, too, stand up when Alleluia Chorus is sung. Like Talavat, Messiah has played continuously in war and peace, in famine and plenty since its debut in 1741.

So, let’s see what these gifted people, the residents of the Pantheon of superior intellect, spirituality and faith tell us. These three people wrote more than 16 million words in their life time. I do not pretend that I have read every word of what they have written, but I have read a good bit of their writings. To give you a summary in the form of a gift that I hope you take home with you, repeat it in your mind, and if you would, like a favorite song, hum it until it becomes a part of you.

Here is what they said. Here is what these three most accomplished and brilliant children of God said: the pathway to salvation and grace is “to know what is good inside of you, namely brain, this

wondrous two and half pounds mass of billions of neurons, that is nerve cells, and trillions of synapses where these neurons

chemically inter-connect, love, compassion, loyalty, faith, intellect and self-awareness; and what is good outside of you, namely friends, connectedness, family, flowers, dance, poetry, music and beauty of nature, and to be thankful for them ‘by giving something back.’ This is the beginning of altruism, philanthropy LOVE OF MANKIND, and joy. Remember, it all started when you were only 10 days old…

Let me repeat and pass onto you the gift these three people have given to us so that their gift may become an integral part of our mentation, cognition, perception and lives: To know what is good inside of you, namely brain and intellect, love, compassion, loyalty, faith, intellect and self-awareness; and what is good outside of you, namely friends, connectedness, family, flowers, dance, poetry, music and beauty of nature, and be thankful for them by giving something back…”

Yes, you and I are privileged to be children of not a mayor, not a king, not a governor, not a President, not a Shah or Ayatollah…You and I are children of God- all seven billion of us occupy that lofty status.

Yes, we have many good things inside of us, many good things outside of us. And we will be constantly aware of them and be thankful for them by giving something back…

And now I close by recalling a passage from one of the most beloved poets of the 20th century, Khalil Gibran: “Empty and dark shall I raise my lantern, and the Guardian of the night shall fill it with oil, and He shall light it also…” May your lanterns be always full, and may they be lighted also.

God Bless America.

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[Commencement continued from page 11]

Cleverly and adroitly, Dorothea used that knowledge and information to persuade President Lincoln to build Saint Elizabeth Hospital. This was in the middle of the Civil War when resources were sparse. Nevertheless, she made the President aware of the need for humane treatment of the “insane”. What a miraculous accomplishment. With these efforts, she single-handedly turned the former jails and snake pits that contained the mentally ill into the clean wards of a hospital setting, with good nutrition, comfortable living conditions, protecting the patients form extremes of cold and heat. In the late 1950s and early 60’s, Dorothea Dix Hospital in Raleigh was a national model for cutting edge research and treatment of the mentally ill. The original tract of land designated for the hospital project was 425 acres. Throughout the years, 122 acres have been given to NC State University, the Farmer’s Market and building of roads leading to those facilities, leaving 303 acres. On May 5, 2015, the city of Raleigh purchased the 303 acres of land from State of North Carolina for 52 million dollars with the expressed purpose of turning the tract into a destination park. It took 11 years from the conceptual phase of the project (April 2004) to signing of the document (May 5, 2015) to accomplish the feat. Because of the persuasive energy of Dorothea, the wisdom of 1850s North Carolina General Assembly, and the hard work of a group of contemporary Raleigh leaders, we will have a destination park named for Dorothea Dix. It might be helpful to recognize the collective wisdom of the NC General Assembly which in the past has given us the “Horn tooting” Bill in 1932, birthing the distinguished NC Symphony and another bill to create the NC Museum of Art in 1929. We are grateful Future:While we rejoice the recent transaction between the Governor and the city of

Raleigh to create a 303 acres Dix Park, a destination park, we must not forget the patients who suffer from brain disease and chemical imbalance of the brain (I really believe we know enough neurobiology and brain science related to avoid the stigma laden term of mental illness and use brain disease instead). Our fellow citizens who suffer from brain disorder deserve continued care and compassion. We should support National Association of Mentally Ill (NAMI). It is my hope to change it to the National Association of Brain Disorder (NABD).

*The writer is Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina School of Medicine at Chapel Hill, Distinguished Life fellow American Psychiatric Association; Life Member, American Medical Association; Life Member, Southern Medical Association; and Founding Editor and Editor-in-Chief, Wake County Physician Magazine (1995-2012).

[Dorothea Dix continued from page 9]


in Act III is a speech for a young man, but all of us need to ask ourselves: are we “to be or not to be”? This is not a question about literal or figurative suicide, but one that measures the changing depth of what lies beneath the muddy water. Spock will outlive Nimoy; Twain outlived Clemens; the role of educator/ physician/clinician will outlive me. My decision “to be” until I am “not to be” echoes the voices of many souls who passed this way before.

“Live long and prosper”.

[Pen continued from page 7]

CURRENT PROGRAMSProject Access - A physician-led volunteer medical specialty service program for the poor, uninsured men, women, and children of Wake County.

Community Care of Wake and Johnston Counties CCWJC has created private and public partnerships to improve performance with disease management initiatives such as asthma and diabetes for ACCESS Medicaid recipients.

CapitalCare Collaborative - The CCC program is a membership of safety net providers working corroboratively to develop initiatives to improve the health of the region’s medically underserved such as asthma and diabetes for Medicaid and Medicare recipients.

The Wake County Medical Society (WCMS) is a 501 (c) 6 nonprofit organization that serves the licensed physicians and physician assistants of Wake County. Chartered in 1903 by the North Carolina Medical Society.

Membership in the Wake County Medical Society is one of the most important and effective ways for physicians, collectively, to be part of the solution to our many health care challenges. A strong, vibrant Society will always have the ear of legislators because they respect the fact that doctors are uniquely qualified to help form health policies that work as intended. It’s heartening to know the vast majority of Wake County physicians, more than 700 to date, have chosen to become members of the Wake County Medical Society.

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Publications - Members receive the peer-reviewed The Wake County Physician Magazine four times a year, and we keep you informed regularly via pertinent emails. The magazine focuses on local health care issues in Wake County, the Wake County Medical Society and the WCMS Alliance, a companion organization composed of physician spouses and significant others.

Socializing with your physician colleagues - Many physicians feel too busy to do anything except work long hours caring for patients. But, the WCMS provides an opportunity for physicians to nourish relationships through social interaction with one another at our dinner meetings featuring prominent speakers and at other events.

Finally, joining the WCMS is plain and simple the right thing to do - Physicians and the community benefit from our membership and our leadership in local affairs.

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HOW TO JOIN

A portion of your dues supports to the volunteer and service programs of WCMS. Membership is also available for PA’s. There is even an opportunity for your spouse to get involved by joining the Wake County Medical Society Alliance.

Are you interested in becoming a Wake County Medical Society member? Simply visit our website at www.wakedocs.org and complete the online application or contact us by phone at 919.792.3644.

A portion of your dues contributes to the volunteer and service programs of WCMS. Membership is also available for PA’s. There is even an opportunity for your spouse to get involved by

joining the Wake County Medical Society Alliance.

JOIN TODAY!

wcpm july 2015

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