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President’s Letter
Colleagues, I am humbled and honored to be your President this year. I do not take lightly the job of filling the shoes of the talented and dedicated Presidents before me. I look forward to building on their legacies and continuing to strengthen organized medicine.
I am a board-certified, fellowship-trained orthopaedic surgeon specializing in sports medicine, arthroscopic shoulder surgery and shoulder replacement at OrthoSouth. I received my medical degree from Northeastern Ohio University College of Medicine and completed orthopaedic surgery residency at Ohio State University in Columbus Ohio. I also completed a fellowship in sports medicine and shoulder surgery at Mississippi Sports Medicine and Orthopaedic Center in Jackson, Mississippi and the Tulane Institute of Sports Medicine in New Orleans, Louisiana. During my time at Tulane, I served as a team physician for Tulane University. I am currently an associate master instructor for AANA shoulder courses at the Orthopaedic Learning Center in Chicago, IL. And I serve as the team physician for Arlington High School and as a preceptor for physician assistant students at Christian Brothers University.
Hopefully you have heard of our new initiative, Project Access West Tennessee. Supported by our Memphis Medical Foundation, PAWT coordinates specialty care needs of the uninsured in West Tennessee. The need is great, and I am happy to say that I have already seen a PAWT patient in my office. It was an extremely smooth process, did not interrupt my daily schedule, and it was a wonderful feeling to help those in extra need. You’ll find a story from Dr. Perisco Wofford on his PAWT experience in this issue. I encourage all our members to see one PAWT patient a month. Think of the impact we could make. For more information and to be added to our volunteer list, visit www.projectaccesswesttn.org. We will only reach out when there is a need for your specialty. Looking forward to a terrific year,
Christopher Pokabla, M.D.
President, Memphis Medical Society 2022 2
