By Aileen Wetzel, Executive Director
On Friday, May 16, SSVMS hosted the Past Presidents’ Luncheon — the first time in years that so much living SSVMS history has been in one room together.
In preparation for this event, we dusted off old editions of SSV Medicine and took a look at what the SSVMS presidents have had to say over the years about the issues they faced during their terms. What we found was something special: despite seismic changes in medicine, policy, and culture, the deep commitment physicians have to their patients and communities has remained as they’ve faced a host of new challenges from social upheaval to COVID-19.
The Past Presidents' Lunch brought together decades of SSVMS leadership. From left: Alicia Abels, MD (2011); current SSVMS President Adam Dougherty, MD; Carol Burch, MD (2021); Vanessa Walker, DO (2024); Ruenell Adams Jacobs, MD (2017); Richard Jones, MD (2007); William Vetter, MD (1995); John Wiesenfarth, MD (2020); Joanne Berkowitz, MD (1996); Paul Reynolds, MD (2023); and David Herbert, MD (2012, 2013). Also attending were Rajiv Misquitta, MD (2018) and Richard Pan, MD (2004).
James H. Yant, MD served as president of the Sacramento Society for Medical Improvement — what you know today as SSVMS — in 1948. It was under his leadership that the Society established the Sacramento Blood Bank, which later became BloodSource and is now Vitalant. His successor noted that projects such as the blood bank meant doctors could do more than just treat patients in an exam room or hospital. “Any time is golden as long as physicians take pride and pleasure in helping their patients,” Society President Ralph C. Teall, MD said in 1949. “There will always be the opportunity to help people in trouble, and we’re lucky to be a part of it.”
That is a sentiment that has remained consistent as the decades have advanced and we fought to support physicians through shifting social, political, and economic challenges. “As physicians we must realize that our first loyalty is to our community,” Milton V. Sarkisian, MD said in 1951. In 1965, as protests against the Vietnam war grew and the fight for civil rights became more intense, Donald P. Hause, MD reaffirmed that “the physician’s chief reason for being is to serve society by caring for the sick and injured.” Even in 1966, as physicians grappled with the advent of Medicare and other federal programs, Orrin S. Cook, Jr., MD advised, “Giving good medical care is our mission. As long as we do this… we remain true to our purpose.”
Many SSVMS leaders expressed frustration and fear in the 1970s amid rising costs and concerns over government intervention. In 1977, Stanley J. Smiley, MD acknowledged the looming challenge of rationing care and assigning priorities, recognizing that this would lead to hard moral questions with answers he said must be physician-led and rooted in compassion. But in 1979, Robert H. Quillinan, MD emphasized that putting these important decisions in the hands of physicians also meant that doctors had tremendous responsibility to maintain the profession’s credibility. “We are our brother’s keepers,” Dr. Quillinan said, “and we are, as physicians, responsible for the conduct of other physicians.”
The growth of managed care, liability crises, and bureaucratic interference frequently brought a tone of weariness to what we heard from leadership in the 1980s and 1990s. Even as the structure of medicine was changing, John H. Ostrich, MD made it clear that the goals remained the same even as delivery methods were changing. “We do care about our patients and about what indeed is the best medical care in the world delivered by the best docs,” Dr. Ostrich said in 1994. A year later, William R. Vetter, MD added,“We need to present ourselves always as patients’ advocates and not let that role be stolen from us by managed care organizations or by the government.”
As the challenges ramped up, so did the statements of resolve. In 1999, Patricia L. Samuelson, MD countered cynicism aimed at organized medicine by noting how she was “continually amazed over the concern that my colleagues… have for the care of the poor and for public health.” As we entered the new century, a new level of activism grew; physicians more aggressively advocated for public policy, embraced diversity, and adapted to increasingly complex health care systems. “We members,” Dr Richard Pan said in 2004, “need to enter the political arena and spend ourselves for a worthy cause, the health of our patients and our community.” Dr. Pan followed his own advice and went on to serve terms is the State Assembly and California State Senate, earning a reputation as a champion for public health.
Paul Reynolds, MD greets SSVMS President Adam Dougherty as Charles McDonnell, MD and David Herbert, MD look on.
By the 2010s, burnout became a dominant theme. In 2014, José Alberto Arévalo, MD acknowledged, “The very nature of our work with ill and stressed-out patients too often spills over into our own identity.” His call in 2014 for SSVMS to help colleagues heal, along with the focus from Ruenell Adams Jacobs, MD in 2017 on addressing and alleviating burnout, helped propel the launch of SSVMS’s popular Joy of Medicine program in 2017.
John M. Wiesenfarth, MD, noted that the COVID-19 pandemic significantly elevated the need for Joy of Medicine and expressed its importance to members. “Physicians are human,” Dr. Wiesenfarth said in 2020. “It’s often hard for our families to understand exactly what we’re going through. That’s why SSVMS’s Joy of Medicine program is so valuable.”
Most recently, past presidents have spoken out about systemic violence, moral injury and societal strain. “An epidemic of irrationality and entitlement is sweeping the nation,” J. Bianca Roberts, MD observed in 2023, warning that patient satisfaction metrics should not come at the expense of quality care or physician dignity. Last year, Vanessa Walker, DO emphasized the urgency of addressing violence against health care workers. “It is essential for health care institutions, policymakers, and the broader community to come together,” she said, “to ensure the well-being of our health care workforce.”
Across their decades of leadership, SSVMS presidents have seen a profession in flux but never in retreat. From today’s leaders to those of the Sacramento Society for Medical improvement, whether the chief issue of the day is liability reform, legislation, burnout or bureaucracy, one ideal continued to emerge as we looked back over more than the three-quarters of a century we have brought you this magazine, which has also evolved from print to digital: physicians do this work because they care. They care deeply about their patients. They care about the systems meant to protect health. They care about each other.
In a world that seems so uncertain, constancy may be the most inspiring, and comforting, message of all.
