Brooklyn Pediatric Society                                            www.bpsny.org

Brooklyn Pediatric Society
  [Home]                 [Meetings]               [News]               [Membership]     

             [AAP, District 2 & Chapters]          [ Hospitals ]     [CME & Other Interesting   Sites]                            

News & Info:

Letter from the President - January 8, 2009

Dear Brooklyn Pediatrician,

Last week I sent an invitation to you and the other 690 pediatricians here in Brooklyn for the upcoming meeting of the Brooklyn Pediatric Society to be held on January 14^th at the Fort Hamilton Officers’ Club located right next to the Verrazano Bridge.  This week I am writing to ask you to please, please send in your dues of $150, join us for January 14^th and support your Society.

These are momentous times for our nation, our world and our profession.  There are countless justifications for despair.  Yet as the recent election demonstrated in such exhilarating manner there are also rock solid reasons for hope and optimism.

The staggering economic collapse spells tough times and budget cuts.  Yet as Dr. Schaeffer informed us in his latest email message to the pediatricians in NY State’s District II, there are powerful forces waging battles both on the state and the national level to maintain and improve funding for children’s health.  This is not the time to lapse into frustration and cynicism.  On the contrary.  Surely it is time to stand up more strongly and more forcefully to make the case for what we know is right for the health and well-being of our nation’s most precious asset – its children.

We have an exciting and critically important program planned for January 14^th.  Dr. Robert Schiller will give a CME-accredited talk on “Alternative Medicine in Pediatrics.”   Dr. Schaeffer will summarize what has been happening on the state and national levels in regards to children’s health.  Then we will have a Q & A session and panel discussion concerning issues in pediatric practice.

Certainly not right away and certainly not without both struggle and fight, but I have no doubt there are victories of great value to our pediatric practices to be won in the coming years.  We Board members have some concrete ideas, e.g., vaccine purchasing cooperatives and payment for telephone calls.  At the March 25^th meeting we will have a formal presentation of these and other ideas.  But you have ideas as well, and you also have concerns, questions and plain old complaints.  January 14^th is a golden opportunity to voice those thoughts, to hear what your fellow pediatricians have to say, and to begin to formulate concrete plans which we will mold into a Campaign for Pediatric Practice to be rolled out and discussed in our next meeting on March 25^th.

Join us.  Speak up.  And send in your dues.  Together we Brooklyn pediatricians can make things better. 

Leslie Alvarado, MD

President, Brooklyn Pediatric Society

*****************************************