Dear friends and colleagues,
It is an honor and a pleasure to serve as president of the Massachusetts Medical Society. I look forward to working with you as we guide our organization to achieve strategic initiatives for impact and growth — initiatives that support and improve our profession and the health of people.
We are fortunate to have the privilege of practicing medicine at a time when advancements in knowledge and technology are happening at a never-before-seen pace. With the rapid changes, however, come challenges.
Perhaps the most pressing is a dangerous inequity in the area of social determinants of health.
Thanks to our capable, compassionate, and hard-working MMS members, staff, and leadership, the organization has committed to ensuring that our influence and energy will be dedicated in the coming months and years to finding ways to identify and reduce barriers borne of social determinants for people and patients of all ages, races, genders, ethnicities, and socioeconomic conditions. This work is possible only through collaboration with like-minded stakeholders.
As clinicians, we understand that removing these obstacles is paramount to building an
effective and sustainable health care system, and, most importantly, to the health of our patients and our society.
Our organization is hard at work identifying priorities and facets of social determinants in which the MMS can effect change and best leverage our expertise and influence.
I look forward to joining you in this work and other efforts that will help improve our profession and the lives of people and our patients.
Sincerely, Maryanne C. Bombaugh, MD,
MSc, MBA, FACOG
