Hospitable hospitalists

I was invited to give the keynote address at the national meeting of the Society of Hospital Medicine in Washington, DC. SHM is committed to enhancing the practice of hospital medicine by promoting education, research and advocacy and has more than 10,000 hospitalist members. They asked me to speak on "The hospitalist's role in the hospital of the future." (Here's a story they wrote afterward.)

Who should I run into but our own Chief of Medicine, Mark Zeidel, who had been invited to be the featured visiting professor for the conference, providing mentoring and insight to those in attendance. You see Mark here with Scott Flanders, Director of the Hospitalist Program at the University of Michigan Health System and President of the SHM.

Hospitalists are now the largest specialty group in medicine in the country, with approximately 28,000 in the profession overall. As noted by panelist Ronald Greeno (on the right), they have a key role to play in improving quality and reducing waste in the hospital environment. He was joined in those sentiments by Patrick Conway and Leslie Norwalk, who further expanded on the implications of the recently passed health care reform act.

About 2,500 people attended this session, including strong representation from BIDMC and several alumni of our program who currently work at other hospitals in the country. Joe Li, one of the first hospitalists in Boston, was voted to be President-elect of the Society and will serve as President next year. Joe has had leadership roles regionally and has also served as the Treasurer of SHM. Congratulations for this well deserved honor!