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| Edition: February 2021 |
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| Letter from the Editor |
I hope this Ebrief finds you with a healthy start to 2021. Despite many of us having “COVID fatigue”, we are still fighting our way through the pandemic. I wanted to share a concise update of information and resources with our FRS members.
With COVID-19 continuing to spread throughout the US, the medical community supported the activation of the Defense Production Act (DPA). This action will increase the production of PPE, testing and vaccine supplies. This coordinated national strategy to combat COVID-19 includes a health equity task force to address the inequities exacerbated by the pandemic.
There are currently 3 variants of the SARS-COV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 identified in the U.K., South Africa, and Brazil. There is currently no evidence that they cause more severe illness or an increased risk of death. Research is being finalized determining the protection against these variants with the COVID-19 vaccine. With the continued transmission of COVID-19, the risk of mutation increases. This risk increases the need for transmission prevention- wearing a mask properly, physical distancing, hand washing, and getting a vaccine. The greater the spread of COVID, the greater the risk of increasing mutations.
Track the number of COVID-19 cases and death in Florida by county. Click Here. As we have learned strategies to decrease the spread of COVID-19, vaccine rollout is perhaps the best hope for ending the pandemic. As we begin a hopeful new year, the medical community focuses on a successful vaccine rollout. Despite the support of the medical community for vaccination, there may be reluctance or fear about receiving the vaccine. Mayo Clinic has provided a COVID-19 Fact sheet that can help address many of the questions and concerns surrounding vaccination and an article addressing many COVID-19 vaccine myths. Click Here. In addition, the ACR has an abundance of COVID-19 Clinical Resources. Click Here. Florida State vaccination guidelines executive order currently restricts vaccination to long-term care facility residents and staff, persons 65 and older, health care personnel, and vulnerable patients. The current demand for the vaccine in Florida has surpassed the supply. The State of Florida is currently distributing vaccines through pharmacies at select Publix Super Market Locations and county health departments. Click here for vaccine sites. Click Here. And finally, if you have recovered from COVID-19 you have antibodies that could help others. Learn how to donate plasma. THE FIGHT IS IN US! Stay safe, share accurate information and encourage vaccination!
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Laura Vallow, M.D.
Secretary, FRS
Vallow.Laura@mayo.edu |
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| Meet Your 2020 – 2021 FRS Executive Committee |
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President
Douglas Hornsby, MD |
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President-Elect
Rajendra Kedar, MD, FACR |
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Treasurer
Chintan Desai, MD |
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Secretary
Laura Vallow, MD |
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| FRS President’s Message |
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LOOK OUT FOR FALLING IGUANAS AND OTHER FLORIDA TOPICS
We are in the depths of winter in Florida and with the temperature dipping into the 40s, iguanas are falling out of trees.
Congratulations are in order for Dr. Jeffrey Stone of Mayo Clinic upon the announcement of his selection to receive the Gold Medal at this past week’s Winter Board Meeting. This is in recognition of his strong and multi-year work serving in all offices and President to FRS and his leadership of the FRS Educational Foundation.
The Winter meeting was virtual this year and considering the circumstances, was well attended. The upcoming ACR Meeting in May is also a virtual meeting. After some debate prior to the Winter Board Meeting, it was decided that the FRS Annual Meeting in July will be held in person. Please register for the meeting. It will be pleasant to see friends and colleagues after a 2-year hiatus. We hope to sustain our momentum and continued success by the interchange of ideas, experiences, and potential solutions to financial, social, and legislative concerns.
The impact of the pandemic is documented in the latest issue of the ACR Bulletin. There is a marked decline in all radiology service practices throughout the state and 72% of the practices have sought financial relief.
The ACR has, of course, endorsed the wearing of masks and social distancing to slowing the spread to our staff and patients. There are yet many throughout the state who feel that the pandemic is a hoax, but we must reinforce to our staff and patients the scientific basis for our actions of masking and distancing and other precautions.
While the FRS’ membership has not declined, this has been a particularly challenging year in the absence of the synergy provided by an in-person meeting. In calls to enlist and/or re-enroll members, one of the concerns for lapsed members was their inability to obtain FACR status after a break in membership. It is no longer required by the ACR that the 10-year membership be continuous. I encourage reaching out to friends and colleagues to join or rejoin us in our effort to educate and support the FRS.
Concerns at the Winter Board Meeting about the extension of scope practice were discussed. This will be a continuing challenge for radiology and other subspecialties. I strongly recommend keeping in contact with our lobbyist, Allison Dudley, for maintaining current information in support of FRS’ efforts to address this important topic. The FRS Legislative Fellowship has been canceled secondary to the limitation of the experience for our Residents and Fellows to interact with our Florida Legislators. Allison Dudley assures me this is not because the weather is much colder in Tallahassee this time of year.
In the meantime, as it is deep winter in Florida and my car insurance is with GEICO, I think they would understand if I filed a claim; but, please remember to not park under trees for fear of falling iguanas.
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Doug Hornsby, MD
President, FRS
doughornsby@msn.com |
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Past President
Patricia Mergo, MD, FACR |
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Legal Counsel
Michael M. Raskin, M.D., J.D., FACR |
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| FRBMA President’s Message |
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Future Conferences
At our FRBMA Board meeting last week we discussed the future of our conferences. The conferences or courses will continue, but certain dynamics are changing that could make things very different in the future. The different dynamic is the virtual aspect that has recently been required. Even as the risk of the pandemic subsides, the question is are members willing to travel?
The conference value equation consists of educational content, networking, and vendor access. Educational content is the easiest component to replicate in a virtual setting. If that is why you’re attending a conference, then in many ways a virtual conference is the right answer. Networking and vendor access just does not work well in a virtual environment. I attended the Paradigm RBMA conference virtually and the content portion was at least as good as what an onsite meeting could offer. But personally I did not feel that vendor and networking aspects were really accomplished.
So what does this mean? Conferences are not only a lot of work to put together, but also require funding much greater than the cost of the fees charged to attendees. Essentially the funding of the conference, is to large extent, paid by the vendors. If my personal reaction is that the vendor access had little value, then we can probably assume the vendors had the same experience. If that’s true, then will vendors continue to support conferences?
At this stage we can’t accurately speculate what will change and/or the degree of change. Certainly in any scenario conferences don’t go away, but we need to rethink and be flexible on how we design conferences in the future. I find great value to the networking and vendor access, so from my point of view once it’s safe to travel I will attend as normal. But each individual will make their own decision and that’s what makes the future so speculative.
A permanent combination of virtual and onsite options could result in one of two outcomes. Overall attendance is increased due to the ease of access of virtual attendance and on-site participation continues similar to what has occurred in the past. Or two, the attendance is similar to past conferences but the attendees are split between on-site and virtual.
My experience over the last 30 years is that attendees at conferences are there mostly for networking and vendors. But I’m biased because that’s why I go. The content is a big deal too and justifies my company allowing me to attend. If I said there was no content, and just networking and vendor access, I don’t think my employer would have the same reaction. So it is the combination of the three that drive our past success.
The FRS FRBMA is scheduled to be an on-site conference in July. I have already made plans to attend and I encourage each of the FRBMA members to support this event.
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John Detelich, CPA, MBA, CEO
President, FRBMA
jdetelich@radassociates.com |
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| Legislative Update |
February has begun and the legislators are going to be in Tallahassee for the next three weeks for committee meetings and then the Session will commence March 4th.
The Senate is not letting any visitors into the Capitol and have announced that they plan to continue this policy through the Session. The House is letting members meet with folks from the outside but it is highly discouraged. Testimony for the Senate and House is done remotely from the Civic Center. The House has invited experts in to testify, but there are quite a few procedural hoops to clear before going in the building. Sadly, this has led to the cancellation of the Residents annual visit to the Florida Capitol and all that surrounds that trip.
Legislatively lots of bills have been filed. The House deadline was Friday February 29th, with the Senate final bill filing deadline of March 2nd. The Session will start March 4th.
The Governor released his $96.6 billion 2021-2022 budget recommendation on Friday January 29th. This budget proposal is $4 billion more than last year’s proposal. His staff will spend the next two weeks rolling out his budget requests to the House and Senate members of the appropriations committees.
Legislatively, Senator Brandes filed SB 72 which is a bill that will provide protection to the health care industry from lawsuits related to Covid-19. There is anticipation of a House companion measure but that bill has not been released yet.
Senator Brandes has also filed SB 424 which would allow autonomous practice by advanced practice registered nurses in his or her own specialty which has many of us concerned and opposed to the bill. I am scheduled to meet with him next week and will have more information in the next Ebrief.
Several Telehealth bills have been filed as well. Senator Burgess has filed legislation, SB 54, to repeal PIP – personal injury protection coverage and replace it with bodily injury liability coverage. At this time there is no med pay provision provided in the bill but that is being discussed.
Please feel free to reach out to me via email, if you have any questions during the session. |
Thanks,
Alison Dudley, FRS Lobbyist
AlisonDudley@dudleyandassociates.com |
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| Martin Northup Resident Leadership Award |
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H. Martin Northup Resident Leadership Award – A scholarship opportunity for Florida Diagnostic Radiology, Radiation Oncology and Medical Physicist 2nd year Residents or graduate students.
Martin Northup was very committed to radiology resident education and advancement. To eternally honor and remember him, the board of the FRS Foundation has established a special award bearing his name, the “H Martin Northup Resident Leadership Award.” Each year, this award will be given to a 2nd year Florida radiology resident who will be a 3rd year at the time of the fellowship to support the cost of accommodations for attending the FRS annual summer meeting. The resident will have an officer mentor and will attend all functions including the board meeting. The goal is to develop future leaders in Radiology and develop promising residents to assume greater roles in the society, such as President of the Resident and Fellow’s Section. The award recipient will be chosen for the 2021 Annual Meeting in Orlando, Florida, July 16-18, 2021 by the Scholarships and Grants committee based on a competitive application process.
Please click here to download an application. Return your completed application to lroger@edusymp.com by May 15, 2021 in order to be considered for this award. |
Thank you,
Jeffrey Stone, M.D., FACR
President, FRS Educational Foundation |
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| 2021 Annual Meeting of the FRS & FRBMA |
| Please join the Florida Radiological Society and the Florida Radiology Business Management Association for the 2021 Annual Meeting at The Ritz-Carlton Orlando, Grande Lakes, July 16-18, 2021. The meeting will focus on “Excelling in an Everchanging Paradigm” and will feature lectures by faculty who are leaders in the practice of radiology. We look forward to seeing you in Orlando, Florida. |
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| Job Posting Opportunities |
Florida Radiological Society is pleased to introduce the opportunity for interested parties to advertise for potential jobs in our monthly FRS Ebrief bulletin.
Advertisement pricing is as follows:
Ebrief Job Posting pricing:
3 months ($100 monthly)
6 months ($90 monthly)
12 months ($80 monthly)
Please contact Lorraine Roger, our Society Administrator for further information on how to advertise in our monthly publication.
ph (813) 806-1070
fx (813) 806-1071
emai lroger@flrad.org
We feel that this will provide a valuable service to both our members and our Florida community of Radiology.
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Thank you for your interest!
Patricia Mergo, MD, FACR |
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| Become a PAC Member Today |
Attention FRBMA Members! Please support the cause. We encourage you to be PAC members and supporters; you do not have to belong to the FRS. Donations can be made online through our PAC website www.FLRADPAC.org. Thank you for your donation.
It is critical that we support both our Florida PAC and RADPAC in order to bolster our voice in Tallahassee and Washington, respectively. Please join FRS lobbyist Alison Dudley in her special appeal for all Florida radiologists to become Florida PAC members. If you would like to help FRS defend radiology against untoward legislation and introduce bills that have a positive impact on our practices, we need your financial support to re-elect our friends in the state House and Senate. The FRS can also show you simplified ways on how to sign up your radiology group. Contact Lorraine Roger at lroger@flrad.org or contact Alison Dudley at alisondudley@dudleyandassociates.com for more information. |
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Telephone (813) 806-1070 • Fax (813) 806-1071
5620 W. Sligh Avenue • Tampa, Florida 33634 |
| The E-Brief is an exclusive member benefit of Florida Radiological Society, delivering monthly member, chapter and industry news. Please do not reply to this automatic e-mail. For comments or questions about the E-Brief, please contact lroger@flrad.org. |
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