A Message from the President
Timothy K. Chartier, MD

Speech Delivered at the Annual Meeting of The Hartford County Medical Association
on the Occasion of his Installation as President of the Association (October 24, 2011)

Thank you, Gwen. Good evening and thank you for coming this evening.  It is with great pleasure and pride that I accept the nomination for President of the Hartford County Medical Association.  The HCMA is in its 219th year and it is indeed an honor to be asked be a part of this great organization and tradition.

As I begin I want to first take a minute on behalf of the Executive Committee, Board of Directors and the entire HCMA membership to properly thank Gwen for the excellent and tireless job she did this past year.  I have known few people as dedicated as her to her role during what has been a challenging year in organized medicine.  Gwen, we all thank you for your hard work over the years and your leadership serving us our President.  You have set a high bar, and I look forward to continuing to work with you over the coming years.  For now, though, you can enjoy the rest you have earned.  Thank you.

For me, moments like this are always a time of reflection.  What brought me here?  And I am always amazed when I consider where I started, my travels, the various jobs I’ve had, the friends I’ve made along the way, the mentors, influences, people who have become special to me, who have nurtured me, guided me, supported me, and touched my life in some special way.  Those who have helped me push a little harder or reach a little higher.  People who have developed my sense of compassion or positively shaped my perspective on life, sometimes directly and deliberately and many more times indirectly and unintentionally.  It’s safe to say that my journey, probably much like many of yours, has not been a straight line.  It has involved many people, and many struggles and challenges, opportunities and rewards, and life-shaping influences.  As I stand before you tonite I realize that I am the product of this process, and I’d like to thank some of the people who have been special to me.

I first want to thank Earl Sittambalam.  He is the person most directly responsible for me being here tonight as it was him who brought me into organized medicine with the HCMA years ago.  I thank him for that, and for becoming a wonderful friend and mentor to me over the years.  When I am confronted with a difficult situation, I will often think to myself “How would Earl handle this?”  The answer is always “with grace, dignity, respect and thoughtful compassion.”  For those of you who know Earl you will immediately understand what I am talking about.  I have taken a lot away from our friendship, and I know you are on the verge of retiring, so I also want to thank you for all you’ve done for medicine and for all you’ve brought to me through our friendship.

I especially want to thank my family, my daughter Gabriela and my son Tim, as well as my wife, Gigi.  They have given me so much.  They have been my anchor and foundation, providing the support, love, and patience that have allowed me to pursue my work and dreams.  They have helped me smile and laugh and have shown me an understanding and selfless patience for which I admire and am grateful.  As I stand here tonight and look out at Gabriela and Tim I see two thoughtful, responsible, caring and beautiful young adults.  I am so proud of both of you and I look forward to being a part of your lives as you both continue to grow as adults and realize your own dreams. 

My wife, Gigi, and I met as teenagers new to college.  She has known me as a boy and has seen me develop into a man, father and physician.  Over the past 27 years she has grown to be my best friend - providing inspiration, support, patience, understanding and love throughout.  For those of you who don’t know her, she is a wonderfully gifted, bright, funny and classy woman who has a tremendous amount of strength, determination, compassion, wit and spirit.  She has helped me grow from the boy I was to the man I have become and tonight would not be possible without her.  For all you have done, and it really is too much to recount, I deeply thank you.

I want to thank my mother for her example of strength and unconditional support and love, and I want to thank my father-in-law who has been like a father to me, inspiring and encouraging me through his example and his confidence in me.

With that aside, I want to briefly say two things that I feel will define my term as President, and then I will turn things over to dinner and the band so we can enjoy the evening.  Those two things are value and membership.  These are not mutually exclusive issues as each is intimately intertwined with the other, and it reminds me of a Professor I had in medical school, the chairman of the department of physiology, Dr. Karl Magelby.  He often half jokingly referred to what he called Magleby’s law, that simply states that everything is connected to everything.  The issue of value and membership are certainly two such things.  You see, without demonstrated value you cannot expect robust membership, and without a strong membership you cannot expect robust value.  It is with this in mind that I enter my term as president, and it is largely these issues that will be the focus of my energy. 

Previously the state medical society and Hartford County Medical Association provided a very clear value tied to its membership.  Recently, however, the importance of this value has diminished.  As a direct result, both the state and county medical associations are forced to re-evaluate their roles, functions, organizational structures and the value that we bring to our members in an effort to provide as much value in as efficient a manner as possible.  This internal review process is occurring through the recently formed Task Force.  As the largest of the eight counties, HCMA has an important role in this process and occupies several important positions at this table.  Michael Krinsky, the newly elected CSMS president and the Task Force chair, is a HCMA member.  With change comes opportunity.  We must recognize the opportunity that this brings and utilize our position to help shape a product that will result in a stronger HCMA, and a stronger professional voice – one that can provide enhanced value to its members.  There is much opportunity here.  We must not let it slip by.

Value in membership comes in several ways.  And while there are many valuable products and services offered by HCMA, THE most important is advocacy.  Advocacy affects our ability to practice, the environment within which we practice, the quality of care we are able to provide, and the ability to run a business, earn a living and allow our staff to earn a living.  It is tremendously important, because medicine is constantly under the threat of others who are trying to encroach on our profession, place constraints upon us, or financially strangle us.  Like waves against the shore, without advocacy they will erode our profession.

HCMA has accomplished advocacy primarily through involvement with the state medical society – be it the legislative committee, insurance committee, public health committee, etc…. Additionally, over the past several years, HCMA has taken a more active and independent role in advocacy through its media campaign designed to get our message out to the public - establishing and reinforcing who we are and what we stand for.  This has come through the efforts of several dedicated and creative individuals, namely Laureen Rubino, Courtland Lewis, Michael McNamee, Gwen Moraski, Bill Petit and many others including your Board of Directors, Rick Fiorentino and Barbara King.  This has been an effective effort, and underscores HCMA’s sensitivity to the importance of advocacy, and your leadership’s desire to be more aggressive in asserting our influence in crafting legislative policies and public opinion that are at worse not hostile towards medicine, and at best beneficial.  We can no longer sit back and allow players with alternative and selfish motives to coercively define our profession.  We must engage and speak out.  As a good friend of mine once said to me (and I believe he is here tonight), if you want to lift heavy weights then you have to lift heavy weights.  Well, HCMA is ready to do the heavy lifting.

As the new year begins we are in a position of relative strength when it comes to legislative advocacy within our state:

1.  We are geographically situated at the Capitol;
2.  We have a Board and Executive Committee with a keen sense of appreciation of the importance of strong advocacy;
3.  HCMA occupies the chair of the CSMS Legislative committee – Courtland Lewis, and
4.  We have the good fortune on having a HCMA member as a newly elected state representative, Dr. Prasad Srinivasan. 

Furthermore, organized medicine represents a considerable economic force in CT and we need to leverage this point.  In 2009, CT office-based physicians contributed nearly $14 billion dollars to the CT economy and supported nearly 52,000 jobs.  This is more than that contributed by CT hospitals ($13.6 bln) and more than twice that of the legal profession ($6.6 bln). 

As HCMA members, we should all find great comfort knowing that HCMA is well poised legislatively.

However, we are only as strong as our membership.  Without a strong membership, one that speaks clearly and cohesively, we cannot be effective and we will struggle to provide value, especially advocacy.  And while I recognize that there are many factors pulling us away from involvement in our societies, be it the pull of family, patients, practice, increasing costs, diminishing reimbursement, disappointment, frustration, intimidation, uncertainty, or a sense that our larger employer can fill that role for us, we need everyone to stay engaged in organized medicine through continued membership.  This is not the time to withdraw from the process or to throw our hands up in resignation (as I have seen others do), but rather a time to strengthen our resolve in advocating for our patients and profession…lest we give it away to others.  Let’s face it, decisions about medicine will be made with or without us.  I say that they be made with us.  In fact, as leaders in healthcare with the benefit of both knowledge, stature and respect, I say let them be made with a louder, stronger, more cohesive us.  I want to encourage everyone to stay involved, get involved, and increase your involvement in organized medicine.  We need you.  We need each other.  Further, I ask that you reach out to physicians who are not currently members, explain why being a member is vital, and encourage their participation.  During my term I hope to explore the issues surrounding membership recruitment and retention, and developing new strategies aimed at strengthening our cause.  Remember, we are only as strong as our membership.

For 219 years the HCMA has represented the voice of Hartford County physicians and their patients.  It is an honor to be a part of this great organization and tradition.  It is with this in mind that I look forward to focusing my energies on working for you!

Thank you and enjoy your evening.