Page 15 - Delaware Medical Journal - November/December 2019
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FUNDRAISING
• Practice Matters – weekly electronic newsletter with important information
staff, including changes in coding, license renewal updates, training opportunities, etc.
• Delaware Medical Journal (DMJ) – clinical, and practical insight for
• Legislative Updates – timely updates on legislative activity of interest to the practice of medicine, including important “call to action” opportunities.
and your staff in providing the very best care for your patients.
COMMUNITY OUTREACH AND EDUCATION
We know (all too well!) that Delaware’s health depends on many more factors
than physicians’ education, experience,
and expertise. That’s why MSD’s ultimate mission — to enhance the health of Delaware’s communities — requires more than just physician services. It requires action for community outreach and education and helping impoverished and uninsured patients obtain access to health care. These are the areas where it is vitally important we expand to meet the needs of our state.
MSD has embarked on a number of important initiatives that extend access to medical care, health information, and medications to underserved populations, as well as encouraging a broader base of physicians to participate in the care of the uninsured.
MSD is the only organization in the state authorized to administer the state’s Voluntary Initiative Program (VIP). Through VIP, we help Delaware’s uninsured and uninsurable
of care they need. We also administer the Medication Assistance Program. This program coordinates the distribution of lower or no-cost medications to low-income and uninsured Delawareans. We recruit local pharmacies, pharmaceutical companies,
and research incentive programs to provide medications to those who otherwise wouldn’t patients have received assistance, with an approximate savings of almost $6 million
in the 12 years the Medication Assistance Program has been in place.
MSD’s OBVIOUS Campaign for Kids focuses on seven critical issues that affect young Delawareans and families: Obesity, Bullying, Violence, Intelligent Decisions, Opioid Use, Underage Drinking, and Suicide Prevention. We include teens, parents, law coaches, and health care professionals in educational presentations by experts to help youth understand and cope with these issues.
Our youth outreach efforts also include
our Healthy Living Talks, offered annually to all seventh-graders in the state. During Healthy Living Week, students interactively participate in a presentation given by MSD physicians and developed by the Medical Society’s School Health Committee. The program covers topics such as bullying, exercise, social issues such as drug/tobacco and alcohol use, sexuality, and general safety issues such as the use of cell phones and car passenger safety. Because of MSD’s efforts, each year a week in November has been designated “MSD Healthy Living Week”
by former Governor Jack Markell, urging
all citizens to show their support for healthy living.
Finally, MSD staff coordinate with physicians who volunteer for the Apollo
– Youth in Medicine program, in which high school students interested in a medical
career are given the opportunity to shadow practicing physicians in the clinical setting. Our goal in 2020 is to expand this program from New Castle to Kent and Sussex Counties, giving meaningful exposure to the demands and rewards of medicine to students considering a career in our profession.
These programs are vital to the long-term health of the communities we serve.
HOW YOU CAN CONTINUE THE MISSION
We’ve made a tremendous start in these various initiatives. And we have a long
and proud history — dating back to the Revolutionary War! — of leading the way for a healthy Delaware. But we believe that we can do much more. Together, we can rise to the occasion to meet the challenges Delaware faces in 2020, 2021, and beyond.
That’s why, to continue and advance the spirit of the Medical Society of Delaware’s mission, MSD’s leadership has launched the Society’s annual mission appeal.
Please look for more information to come in the weeks ahead about how you can be part of this important endeavor.
We thank you for being a part of this noble profession and advancing the quality of health in our state.
Sincerely,
Andrew Dahlke, MD
MSD 175th President
Joseph Straight, MD
MSD 176th President
Del Med J | November/December 2019 | Vol. 91 | No. 6
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