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2015–16 SDCMS Board of Directors Elections

February 17, 2015 Board of Directors BOD 0

Election Opens April 7 and Closes May 5, 2015

CANDIDATES:

Notes:

(Inc.) After Name = Incumbent

Number in Parentheses (#) After Name = Term Length in Years

OFFICERS

President-elect: Mihir Y. Parikh, MD (1) — It is a privilege to ask for your support as I run for president-elect of the San Diego County Medical Society. I have been serving on the SDCMS board for the past nine years, holding various titles along the way, including young physician delegate, secretary, and treasurer. This election cycle I am running for the president-elect position. I believe in the SDCMS mission to uphold the principles behind “Physicians United for a Healthy San Diego.” To be united, we need to have a robust membership of many physicians over many modes of practices over the entire county of San Diego. This large membership will allow us to represent the doctor’s voice in delivering quality healthcare in San Diego. This voice needs to be heard through advocacy and at public health events. In the past nine years, I have clearly seen that we have far greater influence when we speak together than when we opine as individuals. If we cannot carry this influence and demonstrate our relevance, then healthcare will continue to evolve … but without us. I pledge to work on building membership, promoting advocacy, and making San Diego the finest and healthiest city.

Secretary: Mark W. Sornson, MD (1) — It is a privilege to again ask for your support as I run for secretary of SDCMS. I have served as at-large director for four years, three years as a representative on the Executive Committee, seven times as a CMA delegate or alternate delegate representing San Diego, and two years on the Insurance and Physician Reimbursement Reference Committee for CMA. Previously, I chaired the CMA Young Physicians Section and authored a successful resolution.

Through these experiences I have seen firsthand that when a medical society speaks with a unified voice and builds relationships, we can make a difference. I was a spokesperson for last year’s No on 45 CMA campaign, and it was a true pleasure to be a part of that successful advocacy effort. When physicians come together, they are listened to. As secretary, I will continue to be a voice for reasoned discussion, representing all physicians. I’ve greatly enjoyed my service on behalf of SDCMS and CMA, and I am honored to ask for your vote to continue.

Treasurer: David E.J. Bazzo, MD (1) — I’ve had the privilege to serve on the SDCMS board of directors since 2009. During this time, I’ve seen what advocacy through organized medicine can accomplish. This past year, the board elected me to serve as its representative to the Executive Committee, allowing me to learn more about the inner workings of our wonderful association. SDCMS is second to none when it comes to representing the needs and interests of physicians in advocating to optimize our ability to help our patients.

The politics of our state and nation have enormous impact on our capacity to keep our patients healthy, safe, and to keep cost controlled. This could not have been more evident than with the defeat of Prop. 46 (MICRA initiative) last year. These events don’t happen by accident. As with any process, unless you have a seat at the table, your opinion is not heard. Well, through the work of your county and state medical societies, your voices are heard. Your interests are represented.

The members of the board do have influence and work on your behalf to insure that physicians have a say on the future practice of medicine. I am proud of my membership and position on the board, and view it an honor to volunteer to help our organization. I ask that you continue to place your trust in me to serve our organization by supporting my election as treasurer. Thank you.

GEOGRAPHIC DIRECTORS

La Jolla #1: Geva E. Mannor, MD, MPH (Inc.) (3) — I am honored to be considered as one of your La Jolla representatives to SDCMS. Since 2002, I have been performing oculoplastic surgery in the ophthalmology division at Scripps Clinic Medical Group. I obtained my MD at Northwestern and an MPH at Harvard, followed by a residency in ophthalmology at Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, and a fellowship at Yale. I have practiced in various types of clinical settings like academic university departments, VA hospitals, British National Health Service (Moorfields Eye Hospital, London, U.K.), and a U.S. HMO. I am aware of the challenges that today’s physicians face. I plan to advocate for my fellow San Diego county colleagues and improve their ability to practice medicine.

East County #2: Alexandra (Alexe) E. Page, MD (Inc.) (3) — Serving for three years on the SDCMS board of directors has offered me the chance to build relationships with other San Diego County physicians, understanding and representing their views as a delegate to the California Medical Association. I have used the opportunity to transcend specialty interests and work on a united physician voice defining how healthcare will evolve.

My knowledge and experience in health systems have evolved from serving as a member and now chair of the Health Care Systems Committee of the Orthopaedic Academy (AAOS). But regardless of specialty or practice environment, paradigms of healthcare delivery from patient-centered medical homes, to ACOs, to bundled payments can change the patient-doctor relationship. Physicians can protect the care we give our patients by proactively defining how these new healthcare models will evolve in our community. Lessons learned through my specialty academy help guide recommendations and direction for all San Diego physicians.

A cum-laude graduate of Harvard Medical School, after residency in New York I joined Kaiser Permanente in San Diego and have practiced orthopaedics here since 1998. As a member of the SDCMS board of directors, I hope to continue communication among physicians of all disciplines to enhance consensus-building and present a stronger front to other stakeholders in the healthcare system.

South Bay #2: Michael H. Verdolin, MD (Inc.) (3)

North County #3: Michael A. Lobatz, MD (Inc.) (3)

North County #1: Patrick A. Tellez, MD, MPH, MSHA (3) — One of the main goals of healthcare reform has been to decrease medical costs and the uninsured. While the ACA has afforded many access to basic primary care, we now face the prospect of having expanded enrollment into the same system we sought to change before having established financing and payment reforms designed to support sustainability.

Increases in clinical demand and patient volume will naturally increase health expenditures and expose professional reimbursement as a potential expedient solution to fiscal challenges.

Our opportunity is to lead the discussion and implementation of effective management of economic pressures on reimbursement in order to meaningfully impact issues such as contracted physician network inadequacy, physician workforce shortage, and sustainable solutions to payment reform.

Sustaining our Medicare and Medicaid systems as well as our underfunded public health systems will require modification of both financing and delivery of healthcare to meet commonly accepted standards of care and emerging expectations of accountability for quality and service.

While success will require hard work, we, as physicians, are aptly qualified to lead that change. As director, I would be privileged and honored to become part of the team effort to facilitate the Society’s vision for the future.

GEOGRAPHIC ALTERNATE DIRECTORS

North County Alternate #1: Neelima V. Chu, MD (3) — I am honored to be a candidate for SDCMS alternate delegate. I am currently practicing endocrinology and metabolism at Sharp Rees-Stealy Medical Group (SRSMG). I have been at SRSMG for four years. Prior to that, I was in private practice for nine years in Chula Vista. I continue to serve as a voluntary assistant professor at UCSD, Department of Endocrinology. I have had the privilege to participate in the Sharp Leadership Academy. The lessons learned are helping me greatly as the current chief of endocrinology.

I am interested in ensuring that physicians have a voice in the future direction of healthcare and that patients have the ability to access a healthcare system that can effectively meet both their primary and specialty care needs.

East County Alternate #1: Susan Kaweski, MD (Inc.) (3)

AT-LARGE DIRECTORS

#1: Thomas J. Savides, MD (2) — I graduated from UCSD School of Medicine in 1987 and have been a UCSD faculty member in the Division of Gastroenterology since 1993. My clinical specialty is using advanced endoscopic procedures for management of GI track cancers, pancreatico-biliary disease, and challenging colon polyps. Clinical research interests have included GI bleeding, application of endoscopic ultrasound procedures, combined endoscopic surgical procedures, and pancreatic cystic lesions. I have been active in teaching medical students, residents, and fellows, and served as the training director for the UCSD GI Fellowship Program. I also served in various leadership positions at UCSD, including GI Clinical Services chief, chair of the Health Sciences Faculty Council, and member of the Medical Group Board of Governors. In 2014 I became the chief experience officer for UCSD Health System and am responsible for strategy, leadership, and implementation surrounding the improvement of the total healthcare experience of patients, families, providers, and staff. It is my privilege to serve the members of the San Diego County Medical Society.

#2: Karrar H. Ali, DO (Inc.) (3) — I am honored to run for the board of the San Diego County Medical Society again. As an emergency physician at Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center and full partner with California Emergency Physicians (CEP), I am a change agent who seeks to improve medicine at micro and macro levels for our patients, healthcare providers, administrators, and communities. I hold several committee positions at the hospital that focus on efficiency and team-building, as well as being the advocacy lead at Sharp.

As an emergency physician, I feel the failure of the healthcare system every day, especially after the Affordable Care Act. While Washington and Sacramento have worked in getting Americans coverage, there are many still holes to fill. And until these holes are filled, I feel the despair of patients who have nowhere to turn because their primary physician is not accepting their plan or that they have to wait until after they die before getting to see a specialist. I feel the frustration of doctors unable to refer their patients or unable to deliver adequate care — with the emergency department being the only hope for helping their patients. The impact of this failure is overcrowded hospitals, stress on healthcare providers, and continued cost-cutting pressures by administrators.

I believe that the only way we can save our healthcare system is for physicians to be informed and involved advocates, both locally and nationally. My goal as a board member is to advocate our position by educating other San Diego physicians and our representatives in Sacramento. I would specifically like to improve emergency services and advocate access to primary care.

I thank you for your support.

#4: James (Jim) H. Schultz Jr., MD, MBA, FAAFP, DiMM (3) — Jim Schultz is a family physician who practices at Neighborhood Healthcare, a Federally Qualified Community Health Center serving about 70,000 of the underserved and medically needy. He sees outpatients in Escondido, Pauma Valley, and Temecula, and inpatients as part of the California Emergency Physicians Hospitalist program. He has been chief medical officer of Neighborhood Healthcare since 2001, and is currently the medical director of the Council of Community Clinics and of Project Access San Diego.

Prior to his role at Neighborhood Healthcare, Jim was medical director and practicing physician at Graybill Medical Group in Escondido, where he began his professional career in 1988. His goals at SDCMS include fairly representing the interests of the physicians of North County, and bringing in the voice and perspective of those physicians whose practice is predominantly that of the underserved. He is also a volunteer clinical professor at UCSD in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine and hosts the Family Medicine Residency PGY-1 Outpatient Gynecology rotation.

#7: Toluwalase (Lase) A. Ajayi, MD (3) — I have been involved with the San Diego County Medical Society since I moved to San Diego for fellowship in 2012, but I have been active in medical organizations since I was a medical student. As a pediatrician, I have previously and currently serve on several executive committees within the American Academy of Pediatricians, and serve as a young physician liaison to the American Medical Association. As a fellowship-trained palliative care physician, I make sure that I am an engaged member of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine and serve on several committees.

I am diligent in my work and leadership within the AAHPM, AAP, and AMA because of my dedication to serving as an advocate for patients who are underrepresented and / or who may not be able to advocate for themselves. As a palliative care physician and pediatrician, I am fortunate to be able to work with a large variety of physicians within my different practices.

It would be an honor to have a seat on the board of SDCMS so that I may serve on behalf of all physicians, and I ask for your support. I will be dedicated to you so that we may all continue to be in a position to advocate and provide the best care possible to our patients. I believe progress cannot happen at just one level, but involves collaborating with people at different levels who believe in the continued improvement of healthcare for the patient, the practitioner, and the system.

AT-LARGE ALTERNATE DIRECTORS

#2: Steven Chen, MD (1) — It is an honor to be considered for a position on the SDCMS board of directors. Although a recent transplant to San Diego, the importance of organized medicine to our ability to function as a profession is not new to me. After faculty positions as the chief of breast surgery at UC Davis, and associate program director of the Surgical Oncology Fellowship at City of Hope in Los Angeles, and serving on the board of the county medical societies in Sacramento and Los Angeles, I have recently started an independent surgical oncology practice here with offices in Mira Mesa and Encinitas, with privileges in both the Scripps and Sharp systems.

Having been in academic faculty, an employed surgeon in a foundation model, and now an independent surgeon, I have experienced the breadth of all practice modes and feel that I am well qualified to ensure that the needs of all of these groups are considered in everything that SDCMS does.

I have been fortunate to have served nationally in a number of organizations, including being on the board of the American Society of Breast Surgeons and recently completing terms on the Young Physicians Section Governing Council of the AMA, as well as the executive council of the Young Fellows Association of the American College of Surgeons. I continue to serve on the legislative committees of the American College of Surgeons and the American Society of Breast Surgeons and thus stay up to date on the issues facing the professional practice of medicine.

I fully believe that if we do not defend the profession and act in a professional way, we will lose the right to be a profession. SDCMS and organized medicine are key links to ensuring that being a physician continues to mean being a professional. I ask for your support to allow me to help represent you and your concerns.

#3: Erin L. Whitaker, MD (3)

YOUNG PHYSICIAN DIRECTOR

Edwin S. Chen, MD (Inc.) (1) — Healthy and happy physicians take better care of healthy and happy patients. In the dramatically changing healthcare landscape, SDCMS provides a meeting place and a launching platform from which we can advocate for ourselves and our patients. New physicians often find themselves immersed in a healthcare world they never imagined. I have had the honor and privilege of serving as the young physician director for the past year, and it has been a wonderful experience. As a young physician who recently started a solo practice, I look forward to collaborating with all of you in sharing our knowledge and experience so that we can better advocate for the medical community and the patients that we serve.

YOUNG PHYSICIAN ALTERNATE DIRECTOR

Heidi M. Meyer, MD (1) — I am honored to be a candidate for the young physician representative to the SDCMS board. I am a proud graduate of San Diego County’s medical school at UCSD, where I served as the student delegate to CMA and was mentored by several current and former SDCMS board members. As a resident, I served as the resident member of both the Arizona Academy of Family Physicians and the American Academy of Family Physicians board of directors, which exposed me to the politics of medicine on both a state and federal level.

I firmly believe that all medicine is politics, and to deny this is putting our patients and providers at a grave disadvantage. As a primary care provider, I feel it is part of my duty to serve my community and serve as an ambassador to our patients and fellow providers. Too few of us understand healthcare delivery — at our peril — and it is groups like SDCMS, and its state and national equivalents, that seek to change that. The opportunity to serve on this board is a welcome one.

RESIDENT PHYSICIAN DIRECTOR

Michael C. Hann, MD (1) — I am a psychiatry resident at Naval Medical Center San Diego (NMCSD), and I am running for the position of resident director. I am a dual-degree graduate of the FIU Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine and FIU Chapman Graduate School of Business in Miami, Florida, where I earned my MD and healthcare MBA. While studying in Miami, I became engaged early on with organized medicine and served on the board of directors for the Dade County Medical Association for three years. I was recognized at the state level with the Florida Medical Association Foundation scholarship for my contributions to organized medicine. Since coming on to active duty, I have completed the Navy’s Officer Development School (ODS), where I served as the division officer for 120 naval officers in training. I was recognized as the honor graduate upon completion of ODS and was further recognized with the George T. Smith Award for Military Leadership. I also continue to be actively engaged at NMCSD, where I currently serve as the house staff council representative for the Directorate of Mental Health, as well as a committee member on the Graduate Medical Education Committee (GMEC)/CLER Pathways Patient Safety Committee. Most recently, I had the privilege of serving as a District I delegate to the CMA House of Delegates in December 2014. I am committed to representing and advocating for resident physicians and would greatly appreciate your support.

RESIDENT PHYSICIAN ALTERNATE DIRECTOR

Quinn C. Meisinger, MD (1) — I am happy to join the board of directors as a resident representative. I look forward to a productive year.

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