The Northern Colorado Medical Society is starting off 2020 strong. In the first six weeks of the year we hired new NCMS Executive Director John Ward; held an executive committee meeting, board meeting and annual meeting; and sent two delegates to the AMA National Advocacy Conference in Washington, DC!

Moving through February, your NCMS leadership is keeping a close eye on the Colorado General Assembly and the issues that will almost certainly affect medicine should legislation pass. I have been fortunate to serve on the very active CMS Work Group on Health Care Costs and Quality for the past year, sharing my experience as a pathologist and northern Colorado physician on some of the most challenging issues before legislators this year.

Back to NCMS, a big project this quarter is to develop our strategic plan. I am working with John on this and will have more to report after our April 1 NCMS Board of Directors meeting and in the next newsletter.

In the last quarter of 2019, a subcommittee of your NCMS Board of Directors reviewed the bylaws for our organization and will soon submit these for legal review and finalizing. Recommended changes will strengthen our organization and accommodate the tremendous growth we have experienced since the Larimer County and Weld Counties societies merged to form NCMS in 2013.

I want to congratulate our new board members — Drs. Scott Dhupar, Kyle Hampton, Mo Lazkani and Sean Pauzauskie — who were installed at our 2020 Annual Meeting earlier this month, and Dr. Ted Norman who was elected president-elect. It was a fun evening and I saw many new faces. I encourage you to attend other events in 2020 to meet and mingle with your colleagues outside of your practice setting.

Do you have feedback on what NCMS should address in 2020? I want to encourage all members to contact me at nocomedsoc@gmail.com with your questions or comments. Thank you for your membership.

Claire Murphy, MD
2020 NCMS President