By Cory D. Carroll, MD

A habit demanded by the four-legged friends at my home is a morning walk. This activity is predictable but the environment we enter is constantly changing. At this time of year we see the shedding of the energy producing chlorophyll laden parts of the woody plants – i.e. falling leaves. Soon there will be frost on the ground, then snow and in six months a return of warm days and increased plant growth.

Change is inevitable and our four seasons do repeat but they are never the same.

The House of Delegates at the Annual Meeting in Breckenridge this September voted to make a HUGE change in the governance of the Colorado Medical Society and how we will do the business of medicine in the future.   CMS is moving from the old unwieldy large annual meeting of the House of Delegates to a streamlined real-time process where the CMS staff and a reduced board of directors will able to handle business in a timely manner and with more participation of the members of the Colorado Medical Society – i.e. the practicing docs on the front lines.

There was plenty of discussion and many members voiced concerns at this change, but survey data over the last eight years is very clear – CMS members want effective advocacy, meaningful bilateral communications, and helpful information.

The changes voted with overwhelming support will support what our members have told us they need:

1. To engage physicians across the spectrum of practice settings in policy development and advocacy.
2. To draw on physician expertise from the exam-room level to the board room, in that order.
3. To link a streamlined board of directors to their grassroots counterparts.
4. To provoke vigorous, evidence-based, peer-to-peer evaluation of policy options.
5. And to incubate and cultivate a farm system of physician activists and leaders that reflect the evolving demographic and diversity of Colorado physicians.

To some change is a four-letter word but to me change is an eight-letter word – EXCITING! To learn more about the governance reform enacted by your House of Delegates please follow this link to the CMS website: “House of Delegates votes overwhelmingly to re-engineer CMS governance.”

Looking forward to a new day and exciting future for the Colorado House of Medicine.

Got to go, my dogs are calling – the morning habit is repeated in the evening. Good for them and me.