Reflections on a Year in Leadership
ISMS President
Rodney S. Alford, M.D., M.B.A.
April 2, 2024
A year ago, my first President’s Column focused on finding strength through collaboration, and over the course of my term, I have had the opportunity to witness our collective strength as I traveled the state representing ISMS.
During the last year, I had the opportunity to spread the word on all that our organization does at the meetings of county medical societies across a wide swath of the state, including Champaign, Peoria, Sangamon, Winnebago, DuPage, Kankakee, and Kane. I also met with diverse specialty groups including anesthesiologists, pediatricians, and internists.
Everywhere I went, I was struck by the similarity of our concerns, the issues facing us every day, and our overriding passion for our craft. Illinois doctors are in the trenches, balancing growing administrative burdens, batting with recalcitrant payers, and tending to their own mental health, all while providing the highest possible levels of medical care to a diverse patient population. Though we live in an era when people are entrenching themselves along divides, there is more uniting us as physicians than there is keeping us apart.
I also had many opportunities to meet and speak with groups of medical students, residents, and fellows. These trainees are the future of our profession, and I was humbled by their enthusiasm and ambition to address disparities and fix what is broken in the American healthcare system. The next generation is ready to do the hard work of advocating for reform, and I come away from my year filled with hope that the future of medicine looks bright.
Finally, I was honored to join Governor Pritzker on Illinois Public Health and Healthcare Hero Day, which recognized all our hard work, as physicians, in weathering the COVID-19 pandemic, while commemorating the official end of the public health emergency.
Our experience during COVID showed us what we can achieve when we work together, and we must take the lessons that we have learned in the past four years as motivation to continue collaborating. The Governor’s new Healthcare Consumer Access and Protection Act signals renewed enthusiasm in Springfield for healthcare reform, and if physicians harness our power through ISMS, I am optimistic that we can enact meaningful change in the year to come.
Thank you for the chance to represent our great Society over the last year – it has been an honor to meet with so many of you, hear your stories, and carry back what I have learned to our leaders to shape future ISMS policy. My long involvement with ISMS has been a highlight of my professional career, and I encourage you to get involved and make your voice heard as well.