President’s Note:

The emphasis for Seattle Surgical Society this year is on making the Society relevant to your practice. Regardless of whether you are in private practice or employed, a single-specialty group or a large multispecialty clinic, a general surgeon or in a specialty or subspecialty, our effort is on bringing issues to the forefront that reflect the changes and pressures that are impacting or are poised to affect all of us in some way. The panel discussion at April’s meeting, organized by Dr. Barr, “Are Your Surgeons Happy?”, was an eye-opener in terms of the contrasts between private practice and various employed models, and generated honest and passionate discussion about the issues we face, and may be repeated with another set of practice models later this year. At the May meeting there will be a presentation on the Leapfrog initiative which should not be missed by anyone. As you know, Leaprfrog is a national business effort to push the medical establishment to be more accountable to the business community, and its implications are far-reaching.

Seattle Surgical Society remains first and foremost a collegial society for interaction and social networking, but in these rapidly changing times it also offers an opportunity for us to share in the issues we’re facing, finding areas of commonality and possible cooperation, and learning from each other. If you haven’t been to a meeting in a while, consider coming to the May meeting and re-connecting with colleagues. And if you haven’t paid your dues, at least get paid up for this year!

Thanks,

Ralph Aye, MD
President