FROM YOUR PRESIDENT

I am excited to see what all we can do for our medical colleagues and the patients we care for in the coming year.

For those of you that have attended Days on the Hill with the Medical Society, I invite you to join us again next year, and for those of you who haven’t yet, I strongly encourage you to take part in this very unique experience giving us an up-close and personal look at how our state government works. Spending the day with doctors from across the state, meeting with our legislators to offer our medical perspectives has been a highlight of my involvement in the medical society.

The Medical Society and its Foundation have formed Project Access West Tennessee to help provide speciality care to those in need of services in our community, and of course we would love to have you help with that as well. In the coming months, I hope to continue having educational, service, and social events for physicians to help foster and facilitate and facilitate an even stronger sense of collegiality and community. We want to continue growing our membership, not just on paper, but in our actions. Please let me know how I can get you involved. We are here for all of you, and we want to work with you.

This past year has been challenging to be a Memphian. We have been shocked, frightened, and enraged. We should also be proud as we appear to be working together now more than ever to bring about peaceful solutions to our varied problems. Just like our EMR inboxes, our work will never truly end as we all strive to be the best doctors, spouses, parents, friends, and humans we can be.

Ruth Bader Ginsberg said “Whatever you choose to do, leave tracks. That means don’t do it just for yourself. You will want to leave the world a little better for your having lived.” I hope that over the next few months I can do just this for our society.

Lisa Usdan, MD President 2023

Methodist leBonhuer Healthcare

Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare recently announced the appointment of Monica Wharton, FACHE, to chief operating officer and executive vice president, assuming expanded roles and additional responsibilities within the $2 billion integrated healthcare system. Wharton joined Methodist Le Bonheur in 2017 as its senior vice president and chief legal officer and, in 2020, was promoted to chief administrative officer for the Memphis-based healthcare system. As CAO, Wharton spearheaded several initiatives including reimagining the organization’s