Dear Colleagues:

It has been an honor to serve as your President these last 2 years. I would like to sincerely thank the wonderful team that worked with me: Dr. Michelle Hadley our incoming President, our Secretary Dr. Justin Maykel, Treasurer Dr. Adib Karam, Executive Director Ms. Martha Wright and immediate past-President Dr. Giles Whalen.

Today we practice in an environment of managed care that emphasizes the bottom line with cost cutting (even personnel cutting!!) and profit making by large corporations that have taken over the majority of medical practices.  I have heard patient’s comments: “what is the use of beautiful buildings and state-of-the-art technology if I cannot get to speak to my doctor,” “I just can’t talk to my doctor, all I get is myChart messages.”  “I don’t know who saw me in the hospital.” Patients have lost the personalized care they once took for granted. I myself received a myChart message from a nurse when one of my lab results came back abnormal, she forwarded it to a specialist, whose nurse practitioner (in Virginia!!) sent me a message about following up on that result. Wow!!

We physicians can (and must) do better. We must return to the “calling” we heard when we accepted the challenges associated with a medical career.  Hence, in these 2 years of my presidency I have tried bringing back our focus on compassionate care. At our 18^th Cottle lecture in October 2024 Dr. Kerry-Ann Williams spoke on purpose in the “why” behind the work we do.  At our ABM in April 2025: Dr. Stephen Ko focused on spiritual aspects of patient healing.  In October 2025 Dr. Burton Lee presented the 19^th Cottle lecture where he motivated us to value excellence, humility, intrinsic goals and time over money in order to thrive at our jobs.  “The Doctor” was screened for movie night December 2025 showcasing perspectives of a physician-turned-patient.  In February 2026 at our Annual Oration we heard from Dr. Richard Sacra about the challenges as well as the sense of fulfillment from practicing at the “frayed edge” in Africa. Finally, at our ABM in April 2026 we will hear Dr. Tracy Balboni speaking from her extensive experience in palliative medicine and integrating spiritually oriented interventions into comprehensive care.  We will also hear from our MMS/WDMS Community Clinician of the Year awardee Dr. John Worden IV who established the “Mercy Family Practice” in Gardner in 2004 and is a much-sought-after physician in the community for his compassionate care for folks of all ages.

We have these wonderful physicians right among us. They are serving the real needs of their patients -medical as well as emotional and spiritual.  I want to follow their example as I continue my career in medicine.  With God’s grace we all must swim against the tide of churning out RVUs and HCC codes for our corporate masters or following impersonal protocols for disease diagnosis and management.  We must practice seeing disease from the perspective of our patient. Seeing the person, not just a diagnosis.

It is a fact that all of us already are or will be a patient soon.  When that time comes, I hope we have no regrets about the way we practiced as physicians ourselves.

Thank you once again to all our members for your collegiality, support and participation in WDMS activities.  May God bless you and may God bless the WDMS.

Sincerely,

Alwyn Rapose, MD.
Alwyn.rapose@reliantmedicalgroup.org