PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE to Members By Dr. David Rinehart 2019–2020 NCAFP President
~ 2020 TODAY ~
A Time for Reflection, and a Time for Action The past several months, and especially the past several weeks, have caused all of us to focus on societal and healthcare issues that are challenging and at times uncomfortable, embarrassing, frustrating, and intolerable. We have witnessed a sweeping pandemic that has made us feel inadequate, sometimes helpless, and sometimes personally vulnerable. Inequities and disparities in healthcare and in our communities have been made apparent and obvious. We have witnessed horrific videos of brutality, violence, and racism against our Black community members. We struggled to identify, fight against, and understand our own implicit biases. We ask ourselves about how we might help each other find the right direction on the moral compass to rid our society of the inequities of opportunity, disparities of outcome, and racism that exists. There has been much to think about. As we reflect, we are also swept up in the swirling current that calls for action. It does not seem like the right time to wring our hands and form another task force. We are called to be healers, and our communities have deep wounds and serious disease that require active treatment. We must act first by becoming informed and humble. We need to spend time learning about and under-
4
Dr. Rinehart attended the University of Virginia and earned his BA in 1978 (Phi Beta Kappa) and his MD in 1982 (Alpha Omega Alpha). He completed his residency in Family Medicine at Charlotte Memorial Hospital in 1985 and was recognized as a national Mead Johnson Outstanding Resident. Dr. Rinehart has enjoyed 34 years of community-based Family Medicine practice with South Point Family Practice in Belmont, NC, 22 years as an independent group practice and 12 years as part of CaroMont Health. Dr. Rinehart lives in Belmont with his wife of 40 years and has three grown children and two grandchildren.
standing the implicit biases we all harbor, speak with and read about people and cultures that are not of our own experience. We must try to see the world through the perspective of another person to further develop our own. We must continue to uncover and quantify disparities as we work to better understand the social determinants of health. These social determinants must be prominent and explicit in our thinking as we advocate for health equity. We are trained to focus on family, on community, and on our environment as determinants of health. Let us support community groups such as mental health agencies, faith-based groups, literacy councils, housing agencies, food banks, youth and senior programs, childcare agencies and others as they provide threads that together weave the fabric of a healthy community. Some of us will heed the call to be leaders and prominent voices in the struggle to bring equity in justice to our laws, policies, and systems of healthcare. Many will join in advocacy for just housing, just wages, equal educational opportunity, and equal healthcare access. See ‘Reflection’ on Page 6
The North Carolina Family Physician
