Philadelphia Medicine Summer 2019 - 6

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Letter from the president

I

t's hard to believe that my year as president of the Philadelphia County
Medical Society is coming to an end, and that this will be the last magazine
letter I will send you as president. It's been a wonderful experience. We
have spent a year continuing the good work PCMS carries out for our members and
their patients.

Max E. Mercado,
MD

President

Not all endings are good, of course. As I write to you, Hahnemann University
Hospital, one of the city's great institutions, a landmark to modern medicine, is
scheduled to shut its doors in September. Dr. Robert Kucejko, fourth year general
surgery resident at Hahnemann, has written a story on what the loss means to him
personally and to his fellow residents at the hospital - and the patients they have
been serving. The end of Hahnemann means the end of 2,500 jobs, almost half of
them physicians and nurses.
Legal efforts are being made to try to keep Hahnemann from closing. The
Philadelphia County Medical Society's response to the impending closing includes
organizing a town hall meeting to address the needs of the hospital's residents and
physicians, including pathways for them to continue their work at other facilities.

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Your Comments!
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editor@philamedsoc.org.
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I am handing over the president's reins to a physician who is well prepared to
carry on the rich traditions of our society. We have an extensive interview in this issue
with our new president, James L. Cristol, MD. The ophthalmologist's roots run deep
at PCMS. He's the son of Dr. David S. Cristol, the urologist who spent 30 years on the
PCMS Board of Directors. After he died, his wife endowed the PCMS Cristol Award
to encourage the educational, scientific and charitable works of organized medicine.
You'll find that Dr. James Cristol has some very interesting things to say.
Commenting on the biggest changes in medicine during his career, he voiced concerns
about the pressure giant health systems put on the many physicians they employ.
"Doctors are assigned specific blocks of time per patient," he said, "and often need to
say, 'see you next time' prematurely and move on to the next patient."
Dr. Cristol is our 158th president. This issue contains photographs from his
installation dinner on June 29. During the dinner, the Cristol Award and other annual
PCMS honors were presented. You'll probably recognize many of your fellow members
in the pictures of the award winners.
This issue also has a report on the Veterans' Suicide Summit that was held in
April at the PCMS building. The summit heard from a Marine veteran who survived
a suicide attempt. Andrew Einstein said he wanted to kill himself because he was a
lost soul after serving in the war in Afghanistan, where he felt he was doing a service.
EDITORIAL BOARD
* Corina Graziani, MD
* Alan Miceli, MA, Editor

6

Philadelphia Medicine : Summer 2019

* Susan Robbins, MD, MPH, FAAP
* Paul D. Siegel, MD
http://philamedsoc.org
Philadelphia Medicine Summer 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Philadelphia Medicine Summer 2019
