By Adam Dougherty, MD, MPH
Happy New Year to all our wonderful readers! My name is Adam Dougherty, and it is an honor to be your SSVMS President for 2025. I have spent my entire training and career in Sacramento, completing medical school and residency at UC Davis Health and now practice as chief of emergency medicine at Sutter Medical Center Sacramento. As an SSVMS member for 15 years (starting in med school!) who previously served on the SSV Medicine editorial committee and wrote a number of articles on health policy topics including the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, I am excited to reconnect with our readers!
As I enter my term as SSVMS President, I would like to provide some thoughts on our collective experience as health care stewards of our region and how we can continue to better ourselves, our profession, and our community. Turning the calendar provides the opportunity to reflect and learn, as well as look ahead and identify areas of growth both personally and professionally.
We have all experienced the massive growth and development of our region. While this brings significant challenges to health care access and the practice of medicine, I also see an untapped opportunity for the greater Sacramento metro area. As any practicing clinician or patient here can attest, health care infrastructure and workforce development have not kept pace with our population growth, and the complete failure of health plan network adequacy for specialty care and mental health services leaves our patient population suffering.
Last year, as SSVMS president-elect, I attended the annual Cap-to-Cap conference in Washington, DC where the leaders of every Sacramento area health care system convened to share best practices and advocate for regional programs and investment. It became acutely evident to me how much potential we collectively have to make positive impacts for our region’s patients and our workforce. We have yet to build a health care system worthy of 21st century care, and I believe that the capital of California should be on the forefront of new regional models that empower big data, information sharing, and care delivery beyond our traditional silos of health care delivery. Since that conference, I have had a number of conversations with SSVMS, local elected officials, and our health system leaders to identify how the Medical Society can be a convener and promote new collaboration towards these goals.
How we get there is complex, and will require resources from stakeholders, city and county government, and those leaders who can rise to the challenge of true innovation and disruption of the status quo. The passage of Prop 1 (a monumental expansion of mental health access) and Prop 35 (a generational investment into Medi-Cal), as well as the election of new local and state leadership can foster this potential. It will be up to our local physician leaders and health systems to make the most of this opportunity.
But there will also be obstacles, particularly at the federal level. The continued failure of national organized medicine to prevent devastating Medicare cuts will only further erode access for our seniors and persons with disabilities. The new administration’s threats to eliminate the CalAIM program would hamper a promising effort for our patients that, while off to a rocky start, still has the potential to deliver innovative whole person care in tandem with Prop 35 investments. And finally, there is the very real danger of national leaders who continue to threaten basic public health through vaccine hesitancy and unfounded links to autism and baseless claims against fluoridated water. I invite all readers to read our colleague and LACMA President Dr. Po-Yin Samuel Huang’s recent statement focusing on apolitical and evidence-based leadership.
One of my goals for this year is to listen to the many great ideas of our members and help to facilitate networking, invite untapped collaboration, and create regional investment. To that end, we invite you to join us at SSVMS Honors Medicine on Saturday, February 8th to join the conversation! This year’s event features inspiring awardees as well as an unprecedented opportunity to enjoy our entertainment for the evening, the Sacramento Ballet Second Company.
Thank you for your continued support of SSVMS in the new year!
