PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

Our Promise to You

SARAH TRAXLER, MD

As most of you have now heard, the TCMS Board of Directors recently decided to branch out on our own as an independent organization. This decision was not taken lightly since separating from the MMA, a strong and historic organization serving physician interests across the state, meant giving up some influence and support. In deciding to become a separate organization, however, the TCMS gains the independence to continue, unencumbered, doing what we do best—advocate for public health initiatives that our membership is passionate about and are pertinent to the issues currently impacting our communities. Over the last year, we’ve seen our communities differentially impacted by the pandemic and we’ve watched the rollout of inequitable distribution of COVID vaccines. And while we are pleased to see Derek Chauvin held accountable by a guilty verdict, we understand that we are far from justice and that systemic racism continues to be one of the most egregious public health issues plaguing our communities. The TCMS Board of Directors and staff would like to acknowledge our repugnance at recent statements made by medical professionals who claim that racism does not exist in medicine. Comments such as African Americans have higher death rates from COVID-19 due to a nasal passage gene and that no physician is racist, are abhorrent. We know that race-based medicine is still taught and that racist beliefs and implicit bias impact everything we do as physicians—from the rapport we build to the medicines we prescribe. We know that some fields of medicine were built on racist practices (i.e. my own specialty of gynecology) and we know that ignoring this history only serves its continuance and deepens the hurt that Black and Brown bodies have suffered at the hands of science. To that end, the TCMS vows to make a commitment. As TCMS moves into its new era, the Executive Committee and TCMS staff wish to acknowledge that, over the centuries, people of color have suffered from racist policies, practices, and procedures in health care. There is no doubt in our minds that both those who practice the profession and those who have been recipients of care have suffered from systematic, structural, and pervasive racism. Going forward, we promise to address racism by practicing anti-racism in the following ways: 1. We will scrutinize all our organizational documents, those currently existing and those to be developed, for racist texts or assumptions, regardless of time period or original intention, so that we can remove or modify them. 2. We will monitor our publications before dissemination for any instances of racism in the text so that it, too, can be modified or removed. 3. We will monitor our speech for overtones of racism so that, if it occurs, it can be called out and addressed. 4. We will hold each other accountable to this commitment. These are our promises to you. If, at any time, you believe that we are not keeping them, please contact the TCMS interim CEO or a member of the executive committee so that we can address your concerns. As we move into our next phase, we look forward to engaging with our membership. We hope that you will join us as we envision a future that centers justice and represents the interests of physicians in the Twin Cities.

References: • https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2021/03/07/jama-posts-podcast-on-structural-racism-here-is-the-backlash/?sh=42b877fe6a56. • https://www.statnews.com/2021/04/06/podcast-puts-jama-under-fire-for-mishandling-of-race/. • https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/948993. • https://www.kqed.org/science/1973591/jama-and-other-medical-journals-under-fire-after-disastrous-podcast-on-racism-in-medicine. • https://science.thewire.in/health/editor-of-popular-medical-journal-draws-flak-for-denying-structural-racism/. • https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/news/20210310/fallout-from-jama-podcast-continues.