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May 3, 2010 |
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Invest In Your Future?
Your Choice
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 By
L. Edward Seade, MD
President, Texas Orthopaedic Association
Do you want to see your current income cut in half
and be a government employee who gets paid the same
no matter what medical specialty you are in? If so,
this letter is not for you.
As I sit here and think about the low level of
involvement from our orthopaedic surgeons on
legislative issues I begin to get cold sweats.
The TOA staff fights the fight for us, but I can
count them on one hand. More cold sweats.
Not the kind of sweats when you are nervous, but the
kind when you are scared.
You see there are so many issues affecting us today
and we must get involved. When I speak of
involvement, I mean either by becoming active in
legislative issues and /or by investing some George
Washington's in your future. You’ll see what
I mean by investing.
As I write this letter, the new health care
legislation is being digested by all of us. The
more we read and try to stomach it, the more
Pepto-Bismol we require. Even though this
monstrosity of a bill has been passed, it is so
poorly written that the Washington elite have to
re-write it and fix what they just passed. In other
words: We can still let our voice be known and
not just sit on our rears as the politicians
dismantle our health care.
TOA is still also fighting multiple other issues;
scope of practice is one of them. It seems that
everyone wants to play doctor nowadays. There are
multiple allied health specialties and other health
providers who are trying to expand what they can do
within the musculoskeletal system. We don’t think
that this is in the patients’ best interest.
Details on the different issues are available at our
office.
We won big on tort reform, but don’t think those
trial attorneys are just going to go away. Tort
reform is on the chopping block. There are
continued challenges to the bill that we passed and
trial attorneys are trying to chip away at the
legislation as we speak. Trial attorneys give a lot
of greenbacks to their lobbyists. Why do you think
that malpractice reform did not come up at all
during the health care debate? Think of the trial
attorneys as the New York Yankees with all the money
they have. Texas Orthopaedic Political Action
Committee (TOPAC) is more like the Kansas City
Royals. Do you think we are going to win the World
Series with the Royals?
What all these different health care providers and
politicians forget is that patients come first.
Remember the Hippocratic Oath? They don’t. Do not
sit back and watch all these different groups change
how we deliver health care. It is all bad
medicine. TOA will continue to fight for you, but
we cannot do it alone.
I am asking you to either put the gloves on and
help us with the legislators and lawyers or just
simply donate to TOPAC. The web site is
www.toapac.org.
I know that we can make a difference, which is why I
donated $1,000 today. However donation is the wrong
word. I think of it as an investment -- an
investment in our health care, profession and our
patients. Invest in your future NOW - click
here!
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TOA 2010 Annual Meeting Wrap Up
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 The
2010 Texas Orthopaedic Association / Texas
Orthopaedic Foundation Annual Meeting in
conjunction with the Texas Society of Sports
Medicine was held April 22-24 in Grapevine,
TX at the Great Wolf Lodge. This was a fun,
family friendly meeting and it was great to
be back in the greater Dallas area as
members and sponsors alike had a wonderful
time enjoying all the activities offered at
the Great Wolf Lodge. We thank 2010 Program
Chair, Dr. Jay D. Mabrey and his program
committee for their hard work. A special
thanks goes out to W.Z. "Buz" Burkhead and
his band "Doctor Doctor" for an amazing show
at this year's Annual Reception! Also, a big
thank you to TOA staff members for all the
hard work they do behind the scenes to make
these meetings possible.
We would like to thank all our Guest Faculty
including TOA's Keynote Speaker Alan L.
Jones, MD, of Dallas, TX, TOF's Keynote
Speaker Robert R. Scheinberg, MD of Dallas
,TX and TSSM's Keynote Speaker Glenn "Corky"
Terry, MD of Columbus, GA. We appreciate the
participation of all our speakers and their
contribution to the 2010 Annual Meeting.
After a great year as President of the
Texas Orthopaedic Association, Dr. John S.
Early of Dallas, TX passed the baton
to Dr. L. Edward Seade of Austin during the Annual Business Luncheon. TOA
thanks Dr. Early for his generous service.
Dr. Jack Henry of Lubbock, TX announced that
Dr. John Genung of Austin, TX has been
selected to be the 2010 - 2011 President of
the Texas Society of Sports Medicine.
Other meeting highlights include the 8th
Annual Resident Quiz Bowl. This year's
winners were UTMB Galveston students: David
Merriman, MD and Kyle Stuart, MD both of
Galveston, TX. This is the 4th Quiz Bowl
win for UTMB Galveston and the second year
in a row that Dr.'s Merriman and Stuart have
won the coveted prize! UTMB's Residency
Coordinator, Kathy Flesher, was in
attendance again at this year's meeting and
she must be incredibly proud of her school's
4th win of this competition. The Best
Resident Paper award was given to Joshua
Fox, MD of Dallas, TX. Congratulations to
Dr.'s Merriman, Stuart and Fox!
Please mark your calendar for next year's
2011 TOA/TOF/TSSM Annual Meeting May,
19th-21st, 2011. Next year's meeting will be
at the Hyatt Regency - Lost Pines in Bastrop, TX, which is just outside
Austin. It will be another great Annual
Meeting and we look forward to seeing you
there!
TOA wants to thank our generous sponsors of
the 2010 Annual Meeting as these meetings
would not be possible without your continued
support.
Platinum Sponsors
Austin Radiological Association
Cooper Graci & Co.
Pylant Medical/Arthrex
Texas Medical Liability Trust
Gold Sponsors
DonJoy / Aircast / ProCare
Genzyme Biosurgery
Glostream
Medical Protective
Medtronic
Silver Sponsors
American Physicians Insurance Company
Bacterin International, Inc.
Delphi Healthcare Partners
Medusind Solutions
Osteotech, Inc.
Phoenix Ortho
Sanofi - Aventis
Stryker Orthopaedics
Texas Pain Reps
Technical Exhibit Sponsors
A-Claim
Acumed, Llc
Advocate, Md
All Star Xay Inc.
Alliance Surgical Distributors
Angiotech-Quill
Attentive Prime Care Home Health |
Technical Exhibit Sponsors (cont.)
Auxilium Pharmaceuticals
Depuy Orthopaedics, Inc.
Encompass Home Health
Exactech, Inc.
Final Support, Inc.
Flouroscan Imaging Systems
Gbs/Nextgen Healthcare
General Electric Healthcare
Greenway Medical Technologies
Ideal Consent
I.T.S. Usa
King Pharmaceuticals
M-Power Prosthetics
Millenium Laboratories
Orthofix, Inc.
Orthoscan, Inc.
Rti Biologics, Inc.
Salient Surgical Technologies, Inc.
Simplify Md
Smith & Nephew
Southwest Medical Examination Services, Inc.
Srssoft
Stryker Orthopaedics
Surgical Risk Solutions, Llc
Synthes
Touch of Life Technologies
United States Army
Viztek
Wright Medical (Tca Medical)
Zimmer-Wilson/Phillips |
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This Week In Texas: Mignon
McGarry's Memos
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 By Mignon McGarry
TOA Legislative Advocate
TOA Online Version: All Memos
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Last week, the
House Select Committee on Federal
Legislation met for the first time to
discuss federal health care reform. The
committee, chaired by Rep. John Zerwas
(R-Houston) heard testimony from the various
state agencies tasked with implementing the
new law. To follow the activities of the
committee or to listen to the hearing, click
here.
Ronnie Jung,
executive director of the Teacher Retirement
System of Texas (TRS), will step down from
that post on July 1st. Jung has served as
executive director since 2004.
In other news,
Governor Perry shot a "wily" coyote while
out jogging with his daughter's dog back in
February. No, we don't make this stuff up
here in Texas. |
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National Orthopaedic Leadership
Conference
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Approximately
20 members of the Texas Orthopaedic
Association attended the National
Orthopaedic Leadership Conference last week
in Washington DC.
The Texas Delegation
will join the leadership of the AAOS Board
of Councilors (BOC), the Board of Specialty
Societies (BOS) and the Board of Directors,
in conjunction with the Council on Advocacy,
and will meet with numerous Representative
at the NOLC.
Those scheduled to attend the NOLC are:
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Michael
Berkowitz
George
Brindley, MD
Marvin Brown,
MD
Sean Burns,
MD
Marc DeHart,
MD
John Early,
MD
Howard R.
Epps, MD
James
Fogarty, MD
John T. Gill,
MD
Andrew Kant,
MD
Valerie
Lewis, MD |
David
Mansfield, MD
Richard F.
McKay, MD
David
Merriman, MD
Angel Moss
Paul Pace, MD
Andrew
Palafox, MD
Patrick
Palmer, MD
Karl E.
Rathjen, MD
Casey Tabor,
MD
David
Teuscher, MD
Daniel
Valdez, MD |
The TOA
delegation met with:
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Congressman
Kevin Brady
Congressman
Michael Burgess
Congressman
John Carter
Senator Cornyn
Congressman
Culberson
Kristina
Culley
(Rep Gohmert)
Scott
Cunningham
(Congressman Marchant)
Michelle
Domingez
(Congressman Chet Edwards' Office)
Congressman
Charles Gonzalez
& Julie Hart
Congressman
Gene Green |
C. Kyle
Jackson
(Congressman Hersarling)
Lexie Lucas
(Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison)
Congressman
McCaul
Congressman
Neugebauer Office
Congressman
Olson Office
Congressman
Poe
Trisha Raines
(Congresswoman Johnson)
Alastar Rami
(Rep Cuellar)
Congressman
Pete Session & Ms Lenihan
Sarah Whiting
(Rep Barton) |
The TOA
delegation also met with:
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Michael
Conaway
Lloyd Doggett
Kay Granger
Al Green
Ralph Hall
Sheila Jackson-Lee
Sam Johnson |
Solomon Ortiz
Ron Paul
Silvestre Reyes
Ciro Rodriquez
Lamar Smith
Mac Thornberry |
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TOA 2010 Annual Meeting Review
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 By
Andrew Kant, MD
Socioeconomic Committee Chair & AAOS Councilor
WOW! You missed a great meeting.
The Texas Orthopedic Association meeting
recently held in Grapevine was a great
meeting. On Friday morning, the review of
SLAP lesions, rotator cuff tears, and
operative procedures by Dr. Don Buford and
the complete overview of the treatment of
knee instability by Dr. Glenn Terry were
phenomenal. Anyone who attended the meeting
had a complete review of various techniques,
theories, and rationale of treatment of
shoulder and knee instability problems.
On Saturday, the pediatric symposium on hip
and acetabular impingement was simply
fantastic. The discussion also centered on
young adults and on the metal, polyethylene,
and ceramic controversies. It was impossible
to walk away from the morning sessions of
the pediatric orthopedic symposium that
dealt with hips or the adult hip symposium
without a thorough, complete understanding
of the current treatment methods available,
and when they should be used.
I applaud Dr. Jay Mabrey and Dr. Jack Henry
for putting on a wonderful meeting. |
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