NYSSA • The New York State Society of Anesthesiologists, Inc.
NYSSA • The New York State Society of Anesthesiologists, Inc.
Volume 77 Number 1
As the NYSSA embarks on 2025, a new year filled with certain change that will undoubtedly impact our lives and our specialty, I am honored to be your president. I respect this office and the mantle that I have been elected to carry. Many of you have given me your support and mentorship for greater than 20 years as I served in numerous positions that have readied me for this day.
Today, I want to speak to you about winning from within, being on the inside and knowing how things work. We need people who fight externally. We need people to sound the alarm. Weneed people to draw attention to the issues. But we also need people who are inside at the table: people who know and follow the rules; people who know the players; people who can stealthily navigate a trajectory without drawing much attention and fanfare, simply getting the job done.
Amidst our ongoing advocacy on Medicare issues, scope issues, insurance issues, and workforce shortage issues, we must be prepared for that internal fight for our specialty. I would like to spend this year making sure that we are arming ourselves for the WIN from within for our specialty.
The win from within ultimately will be carried out by junior colleagues and trainees. It is imperative that we invest in targeted linear mentorship of our junior leaders. Our junior physicians work very differently than some of us at this meeting. I am often told to work smarter, not harder, and I own that. But despite the “smart work” of junior colleagues, they still need mentorship to prepare them for the incredibly difficult challenges that medicine is facing, and specifically the threats to our specialty that are now actually materializing.
Utilizing the detailed infrastructure that we already have built within the NYSSA through our committees, district leadership, PGA leadership, and executive leadership, we can all refocus our mindsets and intentionally align with the residents and junior leaders in our districts to ensure that they are properly equipped to WIN from within. Through virtual educational sessions on district levels, formal retreats with committee leaders, and collaboration with the Executive Committee, we can leverage our communal talent to guide our young colleagues.
As we deal with retrenchment in our society and our specialty, we must pause and refocus in order to give our junior colleagues the knowledge and the tools they need to survive. Medicine is under siege, and we must arm ourselves from within to ensure its survival.
On a lighter note, before I close I would like to publicly thank my PGA babies: my two sons, Tariq and Ahmir, were born on December 12 and December 13. With the exception of this PGA, I have never been able to celebrate both their birthdays with them since they were born. I was always here at the PGA. Their dad would bring them into the city, and we would have dinner and catch whatever play was happening in the Marquis Theatre here in the hotel. Tariq and Ahmir, thank you for supporting me, your mom in absentia.
To the House of Delegates, I leave you with the promise that while I am your president, I will always strive to represent the NYSSA in a manner that makes you proud, and to move us forward in our specialty as we fight for the WIN from within.
Thank you!
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