Plans for the Presidency
By Donald Kern, MD, MPH, CCHP
Posted on January 4, 2010 – Writing my first letter to the membership as President of your Society is quite a milestone in my life. The past two years as President-Elect have flown by, but SCP has shown great progress under the leadership of Michelle Staples-Horne. As with sell-out performers in Las Vegas, she’s going to be a tough act to follow.
The good news is that there are many of you who are interested in and committed to advancing the mission and goals of the Society. The less than good news is that the current economic climate puts great pressure on correctional health care in general and our Society in particular, to maintain its quality and continue to grow. Your sustained engagement with SCP will be essential to its continuing as the foremost professional society in correctional health care.
Let me comment on five areas that I anticipate will be my priorities for my term as President.
1. Finish developing and implement an examination to test for and certify “added competency” of physicians in correctional health care. Part of the mission of the Society is to create a “repository of knowledge and expertise” through the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of its members. SCP already confers Fellowship as an honorary title to individuals who have shown commitment to the field. However, we also want to create a mechanism for physicians to demonstrate their mastery of the art and science of correctional medicine. To this end, we have already been working with the Certified Correctional Health Professional Board of Trustees to develop a competency based examination in correctional medicine. We anticipate having this ready to go in 2010.
2. Expand our support for developing the “science” of correctional medicine. The Institute of Medicine has pointed out that current informed consent rules make research in corrections especially difficult and may prevent the conduct of important studies that might yield valuable results. SCP supports the principle that correctional health care practice should be “evidence based”, and I will encourage the gathering of new scientific knowledge that is more likely to be applicable to our relatively unique patient population.
3. Embrace the principles of translational medicine and apply them to correctional health care. Gathering knowledge is important, disseminating it is equally important. Correctional health care perhaps has the most to gain from the principles of translational medicine – developing evidence that becomes the basis of clinical guidelines that are then moved into practice. Despite the economic pressures affecting educational programming, SCP has expanded its offerings through collaboration to include a very successful Medical Director Boot Camp. I look forward to developing new collaborations in order to expand the educational outreach of our Society.
4. Increase our involvement in policy discussions for a civil society. Highly motivated and dedicated members of SCP have honed an iterative process to help SCP develop policy statements on important matters in correctional health care practice. As the pre-eminent professional membership organization representing correctional physicians, SCP should make its perspective available to inform public debate. I will encourage the Society to continue to be a strong and reasoned voice in the public sphere.
5. Promote our colleagues. As I have already mentioned, the members of the Society collectively have vast experience and knowledge of correctional health care. I will encourage the application of survey research methods to tap into this reservoir of information. Gathering and summarizing data from our membership will help us advance our mission as well as support the quality care our members strive to deliver to their patients.
Again, I am honored to have been elected to this position as your President and thank you all for this amazing opportunity. I look forward to serving you to the best of my ability.
