President’s Message

Alwyn Rapose, MD

Dear friends,

Continuing from where I left off in my first President’s Message, I would like to encourage active participation from all WDMS members in the activities planned for this year. The Cottle Lecture is scheduled for October 23 and it will be a wonderful opportunity to meet one another again while hearing from a dynamic speaker. Bring someone along with you who has not been an active member. I also encourage you to sign up for Health Matters, the signature television program of the WDMS, which provides you with a wonderful opportunity to showcase your expertise on a local television station. Our delegation to the Massachusetts Medical Society House of Delegates also needs you. Please sign up if you have been a member of WDMS for more than one year.

This edition of Worcester Medicine features articles on healthcare systems in other countries. In our own world, we have seen tremendous advances with minimally invasive and robotic surgery, TAVR, and outpatient joint replacement procedures, all helping reduce hospital stay and post-op recovery times for surgical procedures. Our medical literature is flooded with information regarding breakthroughs in chemotherapy, immunotherapy, newer antimicrobials to target drug-resistant pathogens (I love it!), vaccines, and gene therapy (recently approved in December 2023 for sickle cell disease).

However, there is another reality. A large part of the population lacks access to even a primary care physician and patients are assigned to non-physician clinicians as their PCP. Large medical corporations and hospital chains have edged out the family physician and compromised the personalized doctor-patient relationship. In most communities, group practice is the norm even though it is obvious that a patient would be so much happier to see a single physician committed to his or her healthcare rather than strangers at every different visit. Patients also face the challenges of receiving surprising bills, higher premium costs, lower benefits, and unexpected changes in coverage come January of each new year. As a result, “Healthcare is a Human Right” has become more of a slogan rather than a reality to common folks in Worcester. Interestingly, the world of concierge medicine has reached our doorsteps with a major Boston hospital providing personalized care for an annual fee of around $10,000 above regular health insurance policy premiums! This is despite the predicted shortfall of physicians and nurses to provide care in the general community.

In seeking a solution, we often look to the government to change laws that reduce profit-making by large hospital chains, insurance, and pharmaceutical companies. However, let me suggest we start making small changes ourselves. Encourage one another and lead by example providing the best care we can for our patients. Let’s remind ourselves why we entered medical practice. Mother Teresa said, “I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples”. Let’s change our world one patient at a time.

May God bless you for all you do.

Sincerely,Alwyn Rapose, MD, FACP alwyn.rapose@reliantmedicalgroup.org