In many ways, it is natural for
P R E S I D E N T ’ S P A G E
Strength in Numbers,
Strength in Message.
DCMS President Mark A. Casanova, MD, FAAHPM
physicians in practice to maintain
our primary professional focus
on the patient directly in front of
us. Not only is it natural, but it is
appropriate. However, it is also
appropriate to bear in mind all of the other
patients, real or potential, who are not
directly in front of us. This is the premise
of the prima facie medical ethics principle
of Societal Justice. It is the focus of how
we, individually and collectively, ensure
that we have the ability to equitably care
for the masses with as much devotion and
expertise as the individual. To be clear,
the two focuses should not be considered
as conflicting, but as coordinated and
complementary to each other. The direct
focus on the patient, in some situations,
can be the simpler of the two tasks,
though certainly not always easy. The
focus of the patient in front of us was the
ultimate focus of four years of medical
school and 3-10 years of post-graduate
education. Societal Justice and emphasis
on how we apply care on a population
basis can certainly be more challenging,
especially in the complex healthcare
structure that we exist in.
There is one aspect of promoting health
on a population basis that I certainly didn’t
appreciate while in residency, or even
early in my practice. In fact, it wasn’t until
I became more involved in efforts with
DCMS, TMA, and organized medicine, that
it became clear that there was a necessary
and unavoidable interaction with politics
and politicians in order to put public
health recommendations into practice.
Whether it is promotion of vaccines, tort
reform, increased GME residency slots in
the state, or enhancing care for pregnant
woman, at the end of the day we need
public policymakers by our side. This is
where organized medicine comes into
play. We can also look to Rudolf Virchow
(1821-1902), the Father of Pathology, for
guidance: “Medicine is a social science,
2 DALLAS MEDICAL JOURNAL • June 2020