Thank you for the opportunity to serve as your president for 2008. I am privileged to represent you and our profession.
Your Academy has made great strides in recent years in its main areas of focus education, membership communication and legislative affairs.
In education our annual fall academic meeting continues to grow. We now have three tracks: Physician, Administrators and Technicians. We continue to attract world renowned speakers to the event.
In the political arena we are improving our ability to get our messages heard by the Legislature. Our lobbyist, Joe Simonetta, and executive director/lobbyist Beverly Lynch, have been instrumental in getting us up to speed on the political workings here in New Jersey. We have certainly learned that we cannot afford to pay attention to politics only when there is a crisis. We have made friends and relationships now so that when a problem does arise, and it will, we have the access we need to get our voices heard.
We have been trying to reach out to the membership for feedback and to make everyone aware of what the Academy is doing for each one of you. Our monthly email/fax broadcast known as BLINK has been delivering pertinent timely information to the busy practicing ophthalmologist. Each month gives you briefs on whatever is going on in the state that affects you. There are articles on politics, third party payer topics, legal issues, financial planning and medical malpractice coverage.
Our “On the Road” dinner series has been very successful in getting the message out in more local venues. Several times each year we have been meeting at local restaurants so members of your board can here directly from you any feedback you care to give.
Although we have made significant improvements in getting the Academy’s message out to the ophthalmologists in New Jersey I feel we are still falling short in that area. It is the only excuse I can think of to explain why every ophthalmologist in New Jersey is not a member of the Academy. While the AAO does an excellent job representing us at the federal level it is the NJAO that handles most if not all of our state affairs. This includes scope of practice, insurance company regulations, malpractice insurance and litigation affairs.
One of the reasons the AAO has the influence in Washington that it does is because they can state that they represent over 90% of the Ophthalmologists in the nation. When the NJAO speaks with our state legislatures, we often don't carry that same impact because currently our membership is significantly below the 90% level that the AAO has. To have the influence that your training, expertise and years of dedicated care deserve, the NJAO needs to be the voice of all the state’s ophthalmologists. The AAO, ASCRS, MSNJ, and AMA are all good organizations which are attempting to keep the way you practice medicine as fulfilling as possible. However, the practice of medicine is for the most part a state regulated profession and no other organization is going to stand up for you as well as NJAO.
I hope you consider being a member of all these organizations … but the one that should be first on your list is THE NEW JERSEY ACADEMY of OPHTHALMOLOGY.
The New Jersey Academy of Ophthalmology has over the years been blessed with having a small core group of ophthalmologists who have helped steer the organization through some troubling times. Doctors Donald Cinotti, Ralph Lanciano, Peter Nussbaum, Larry Freiman, Jim Nachbar and Dave Ringel have been ably “holding down the fort” for many years. The organization has also recently added some enthusiastic and hard working new individuals including Dave Hoffman, Jack Dugan, Rob Scharfman, John Stabile, Ravi Goel and Mike Landolfi to help carry the organization forward well into the future. These individuals have donated countless hours of their time and I, as well as you, should be very thankful for their efforts because without them our profession in NJ would be much worse off.
My email address is bwnorowski@shoreeye.com. If you would like any more information about the benefits of membership or if you would like to be more involved in the organization, please send me a message. We are always looking for our next set of leaders to insure the organization stays strong into the future. Maybe our next rising star is you.
Sincerely,
Brian Wnorowski, MD
