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07/03/2024 Allen Jacobs, DPM
RE: Victory! AMA Removes Offensive Social Media Post (Robert Steinberg, DPM)
Quite some years ago, I served as the scientific chairman, assisted by Ray Esper DPM, for the APMA scientific meeting for three years (Disney, California, Las Vegas, and Boston). At that time, the scientific meeting was held concurrently with the House of Delegates. At the Las Vegas meeting, I had invited a number of nationally respected medical school faculty members to lecture. I was rather upset at the fact that it seemed to me that the House of Delegates was receiving priority over my needs for the academic faculty. Although I did not voice my concern, I was indeed upset about this.
James Ganley was one of the individuals I had invited to speak. With his usual insight, he sensed that I was upset. He asked me to take a walk with him through the exhibit hall. He asked me “Allen, you any good at politics?”. I told Dr. Ganley absolutely not. I have an inability to negotiate if I feel someone is wrong and willfully misrepresenting facts or willfully distorting facts. Dr. Ganley looked at me and said “neither am I“. He then said. “you know, neither one of us is good at politics. But we do need politicians. We need them to move the profession forward and to protect the profession. We need good people to do the things that you and I do not do.”
Ray Esper and I met with John George, who was either APMA president or on the board of APMA at that time. We spoke to the need to separate the national scientific meeting from the House of Delegates meeting. He agreed, and got the ball rolling.
Recently, we have seen some increasing criticism of the APMA by contributors to p.m. news. I must say at the outset that I am in general agreement with them. However, complaining does not solve the issue of poor political representation by our national or local organizations
Anyone who knows me well knows I am incapable of participating in politics. However, I tell the residents with whom I work that they must get involved and change things. If you are dissatisfied, then you must vote out your current delegates. You must be more involved in your state societies. You must demand action by the officers and board members both locally and nationally or you must take action and remove them. You must get involved if you have the ability to do so. In the “old days“ the APMA officers and presidents were generally individuals academically accomplished, who moved on to politics later in their life. They had established bona fides. They were people like Irv Kanat, Earl Kaplan, Dalton McGlamry, Arthur Helfand. They were academics first and politicians later.
We need good politicians. I agree that in the last number of years we have had individual officers with relatively little or no academic or professional accomplishment. I personally believe it is acceptable to be a full-time politician so long as you do a good job of it, moving the profession forward, academically and politically. I agree with other writers they have failed in this regard. I believe that the APMA has become somewhat self-serving relegating the needs of our profession second to their own personal political and financial needs. Some of the concerns of our membership are beyond the control of the APMA, and are issues which confront all of medicine, just not podiatry.( As an example, reduced payments for services rendered, increasing pre-authorizations). At the local level, as they say, all politics are local. You need to take the time to get involved at the state level. You need to hold your national delegates accountable or remove them. You need to hold your executive directors accountable or remove them. If your seminars fail to provide you with the education you require and fail to satisfy your educational needs vote out the people who are responsible for the construction and content of these meetings. Get involved. The editor of PM Magazine has told you this for years and it is true. If you do not get involved, you do not have the right to complain. hold people accountable. Dr. Ganley said it best, we need good politicians.
Allen Jacobs, DPM, St. Louis, MO
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