1. A Plan to Improve the Quality of Diabetes Care Developed During Symposium

2. Healthcare Reform: Strategies for Change Highlighted at Ethnic Physician Summit
3.Reflections: So Much Has Been Accomplished - The Best is Yet to Come
4. California Health Care Leaders Pilot Methods to Eliminate Health Disparities Based on Race and Ethnicity

5. CMA Foundation's 2010 AWARE Provider Toolkit for the Cold and Flu Season

6. County Corner - Access to Care for the San Diego Safety-Net
7. Corporate Advisory Spotlight - AMGEN

8. CMA Foundation Extends Its Appreciation to its Generous Contributors
9. Foundation Partners with the National Initiative For Children's Healthcare Quality Initiative in the Fight Against Childhood Obesity

10. Donate Today! Making a Contribution to the CMA Foundation is Quick and Easy

1. A Plan to Improve the Quality of Diabetes care Developed During Symposium

In June 29, 2009, California Medical Association (CMA) Foundation held a diabetes symposium for more than 100 participants, including health care providers as well as representatives from patient advocacy groups, ethnic advocacy groups, health plans, physician specialty groups, state and local government, and health care associations.

Titled, “Diabetes as a Cardiovascular Disease: Strategies and Partnerships to Improve Health,” the goal of the symposium was to envision a plan to improve the quality of care for diverse diabetes patient populations in Cali-fornia. Presentations by nationally recognized speakers addressed diabe-tes care issues topics such as patient self-management and medication adherence.

In breakout and panel discussions, participants from various sectors of the healthcare arena provided input to the CMA Foundation which will help the Foundation to develop a plan of action to guide the next phase of CMA Foundation’s Advancing Practice Excellence in Diabetes.  The plan will focus on strategies and partnerships needed to support healthcare providers in their efforts to better serve patients with diabetes.

Jerry Penso, MD, MBA, Association Medical Director, Quality Programs, Sharp Rees-Stealy Medical Group, said this about the sym-posium, “The CMA Foundation ‘s symposium was a success.  It offered a diverse group of stakeholders the opportunity to share best practices and to develop strategies and tactics that will help patients with diabetes achieve the best possible outcomes.”

In 2006, the CMA Foundation began Advancing Practice Excellence in Diabetes, initiating its Quality Collaborative to help improve the quality of diabetes care provided in solo and small group practices.  In California, these healthcare providers represent approximately 60% of all primary care physicians and provide care to more than 800,000 adult patients with type 2 diabetes.  Because of the high rates of diabetes in ethnic communities, elimination of health care disparities is also a key focus of this project.  For more information, please contact Elissa Maas, CMA Foundation Vice President of Programs at emaas@thecmafoundation.org.

2. Health Care Reform: Strategies for Change Highlighted at Ethnic Physician Leadership Summit

Health disparities and health policy, impact on quality care of health IT and the stimulus package, and the inspiring messages of hope and determination from medical students.  These are just some of the high-lights from the California Medical Association (CMA) Foundation and Network of Ethnic Physician Organizations’ (NEPO) 2009 Ethnic Phy-sician Leadership Summit held during September 26 – 27 in Santa Clara, California.  Joseph R. Betancourt, MD, MPH, (photo on left) Director of The Disparities Solutions Center, Massachusetts General Hospital and Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, kicked off the Summit by presenting an overview of the health dispari-ties in minority populations in the United States.

Federal Stimulus Funds Advancing Health IT in California was presented by Mark Smith, MD, MBA, Chief Executive Offi cer of the California Healthcare Foundation.  Diversity in Clinical Trials addressed the gap that exists with communities of color in clinical tri-als while Politics 101 reminded ethnic physicians about the importance of participating in public health policy efforts.  Dr. Guillermo Valenzuela, M.D., was presented the 2009 Ethnic Physician Leadership Award for his outstanding leadership in efforts to send Inland Empire students to college. Visit www.ethnicphysicians.org for more highlights and summit presentations.

3.Reflections by Carol A. Lee, Esq.: The CMA Foundation - So Much Has Been Accomplished and the Best is Yet To Come!

.In this last 10 years, the CMA Foundation has created a reputation for:

Have we been lucky at what we’ve done?  A little.  But more importantly, we have worked long and hard to bring about these achievements and successes.  We have been blessed with vision-ary leaders on our Board of Directors who chal-lenged all of us to dream big.  Doing status quo wasn’t an option for this group.  They gave their staff permission to reach and stretch.  Our suc-cesses are built on their trust and guidance.

Dr. Rolland Lowe would always remind us of per-haps one of his favorite Chinese Proverbs – You have to go slow to go fast.  This became one of our mantras in building out our work.  He also reminded us to choose our direction and then fi nd the funds and support to make it happen. Dr. Frank Staggers, Sr. challenged us to fi nd part-ners that could support our vision and mission, never reinventing what was done. Both of these men taught us valuable lessons. 

The Foundation has impacted the quality of healthcare in California, made great strides in public health issues, begun to participate in re-search endeavors, focused on access to care and partnered with the public to improve and promote health.  Let’s look at what we’ve accomplished.

In the area of Quality Care, the Foundation crea-ted a model to support physicians in smaller practice settings to strengthen their chronic disease care, starting with diabetes.  This groundbreaking work is so important because for so long qual-ity improvement efforts have looked past these physicians who still make up the backbone of primary care in California and across the nation.  We have created clinical tools for diabetes and obesity that help physicians and their staff to make informed decisions in the management of their patient’s health. 

Our first venture into preventive care took us into the issue of smoking cessation.  The Foundation was in the lead, mobilizing physicians as agents to raise awareness about the perils of tobacco use and as advocates to change health policy.  The Foundation created one of its fi rst innovative partnerships with the pharmacists of California, helping to establish and promote over 700 tobacco free pharmacies. 

We then took on the issue of antibiotic resistance and the appropriate use of antibiotics with the AWARE Project.  This 10 year campaign has re-sulted in a reduction in resistance levels for strep pneumoniae and a dramatic increase in appropri-ate antibiotic prescribing.  The campaign brought Bill Nye ‘the Science Guy’ and Dick Van Dyke together to serve as spokespersons for our cam-paign.  Other states and the AMA adopted our campaign and our clinical and patient education materials.

The CMA Foundation was highlighted in the Inst-tute of Medicine’s Progress in Preventing Child-hood Obesity – How Do We Measure Up? as a best practice for mobilizing physicians and other healthcare professionals to bring their powerful, persuasive voices to improve the health of our children and their communities. Our physician champions are working hard to make communities more walkable and bikeable.  They are work-ing with local recreation organizations and mo-bilizing parents and schools to create healthier places for our children. 

In both AWARE and our Network of Ethnic Phy-sician Organizations [NEPO] Project, we began our fi rst research efforts.  In AWARE, we con-ducted a multiyear study of prescribing data that documented and demonstrated our success.  In NEPO, we conducted our fi rst qualitative re-search project, studying the work of solo/small group practice physicians and their role in Cali-fornia’s safety-net.

The Foundation took a lead role to ensure that the data available through the Medical Board of California could be used to map out the race and ethnicity of physicians in California and use this data to ensure that strong efforts in healthcare workforce diversity were underway.  NEPO also brought us into the issue of access to care, focusing on the availability of our medical workforce and the often invisible role private physician’s play in our nation’s safety-net, sparking an inter-esting in mentoring young people to choose medicine and health careers.

In these 10 years, the CMA Foundation has taken policy adopted by the CMA’s House of Delegates and moved this policy into some-thing real.  Each of our projects is connected to policy adopted by CMA’s leadership physicians.  We are proud to be able to put a face and bring a voice to these important health policies.

A lot has been done, no question.  And yet, why does it feel like we’re only just beginning?  Maybe because these are all big issues that will continue to confront us in so many different ways.   

Where are we headed in the next 10 years?  We will continue to address quality healthcare, broadening our partnerships and expan-ding our focus to take on other chronic diseases – heart disease is next. We will continue to be engaged in the fight against infec-tious disease, working more now on infl uenza.  We have brought the Girl Scouts to this fight as well, mobilizing these young girls as educators for their families, schools and communities to prevent the spread of the flu.  We are reaching out to college campuses with messages about the prevention and ways to manage flu, so timely now with the threat of H1N1 or Swine flu. 

We have just completed a comprehensive study of women’s health issues and are poised to begin to examine aging and identify key roles for the Foundation in these health issues.  More national or-ganizations have reached out to the Foundation to partner as well – the National Initiative for Children’s Healthcare Quality, the AMA to name just a few.  It is exciting that we have the chance to share our work on a national level and to learn from these partners how to make our work stronger.

I would be remiss if I closed this off without doing something my mother always told me to do – say Thank You!  The success of the Foundation has benefi ted from the gifts of time, knowledge, experi-ence and passion from thousands of volunteers who have given and continue to give to the work we do.  There aren’t enough pages in this newsletter to list all the names of these individuals so impor-tant to our success.  We thank you for the gifts you have shared and continue to share.  So let me just say – Thank you!

4. California Health Care Leaders Pilot Methods to Eliminate Health Disparities Based on Race and Ethnicity

Medical societies and health care systems across California are piloting innovative ways to improve health care and  ultimately – health outcomes for patients who speak limited English. From encouraging diverse youth to consider careers in medicine to insisting that national health information tech-nology standards include a focus on ethnicity and language, physicians and hospitals are working to ensure that all patients receive quality medical care, regardless of their primary language or culture.

Member organizations of the Medical Leadership Council on Cultural Proficiency (MLC) met in Oakland on May 20 to share updates about what’s working best to meet this goal. Convened by The California Endowment, the MLC has been meeting for seven years and is regarded as a leader in efforts that will help eliminate the health disparities based on race and ethnicity that still plague health care in California and the U.S.

“As the nation catches up with California in addressing lan-guage access, cultural profi ciency, and workforce diversity, the Council organizations are positioned to take leadership on these issues,” said Robert K. Ross, MD, President and CEO of The Endowment.

“Compromising a patient’s health care because the doctor or nurse can’t understand his or her language is literally a vio-lation of someone’s civil rights,” said Leonard Fromer, MD, a Past President of the California Academy of Family Phy-sicians. “Improving language access began in part because State and federal laws required it. Now we understand that in order to provide quality care, providers must possess enough cultural profi ciency to deliver that care in a way that respects a patient’s language, ethnicity and culture.”

The Medical Leadership Council on Cultural Profi ciency is a unique and powerful group of 37 medical and specialty socie-ties, health plans and health systems working to improve lan-guage access, cultural profi ciency, and health care workforce diversity in California. For more information about the Medi-cal Leadership Council on Cultural Profi ciency and to view a video about the Council’s work, visit www.MedicalLeadership.org.

5. CMA Foundation's 2010 AWARE Provider Toolkit for the Cold and Flu Season

The seasonal fl u virus and the novel infl uenza A (H1N1) virus has arrived with a vengeance! The California Medical Association (CMA) Foundation’s Alliance Working for Antibiotic Resistance Education (AWARE) 2010 Provider Toolkit contains resources that support the work of physicians to educate patients.  Visit www.aware.md for clinical resources and patient education materials.

6. County Corner - Access to Care for the San Diego Safety-Net by Tana Lorah, San Diego County Medical Society Foundation

The San Diego County Medical Society Foundation is working to increase access to healthcare services for uninsured and underinsured, low-income San Diegans.  Three programs aid the Foundation in making a positive impact on the health sta-tus of the medically underserved -- Project Access San Diego (PASD); Surgery Days; and a collaborative project, the Specialty Care Access Initiative (SCAI).

Project Access San Diego (PASD) is a physician-led partnership of coordinated charity care including volunteer physi-cians, hospitals, and other healthcare providers countywide. PASD’s network of volunteers provides a full range of free healthcare services to enrolled patients. Services include: primary and specialty physician appointments, inpatient and outpatient hospital care, laboratory, imaging, medical equipment and pharmacy benefi ts.

Surgery Days is a partnership with out-patient hospital centers to provide same day, low-risk surgeries for free to safety-net patients. 64 surgeries and Colon Cancer Screenings have taken place this year totaling over $400,000 in donated healthcare services.  Surgery Day patient, Lorena Groban exclaimed, “Thank God for Project Access San Diego, my life is changed!”   Two more Surgery Days are planned in 2009.

The Specialty Care Access Initiative (SCAI) is a planned approach to accessing specialty care services for the safety-net population. In partnership with health centers, the SDCMSF is implementing strategies to enhance specialty care access and  better coordinating referrals to our regions specialists.

Community benefits associated with the Foundation’s programs include: lowering the use of emergency departments; lowering dependency on government services; fewer bankruptcies; patients are better able to support self & family; and the economic benefi ts of a stronger, more stable workforce.For more information about the San Diego County Medical Society Foundation’s Access to Care projects, please visit www.sdcmsf.org.

7. Corporate Advisory Spotlight - AMGEN

Guided by the belief that the path to optimal bone health can be found through education, six leading health and women’s groups recently joined forces with Amgen to create the Know My Bones Council. The Know My Bones Council was formed in 2009 with the goal of encouraging women living with postmenopausal osteoporosis (PMO) to prioritize their bone health and seek information that will empower them to fi ght the disease.

The Council launched the Know My Bones educational initiative with the help and support of Kathy Reichs, Ph.D., forensic anthropologist, best-selling author and producer of the TV series “Bones,” and Felicia Cos-man, M.D., clinical director of the National Osteoporosis Foundation. The initiative kicked off with the release of results from a national Harris Interactive survey of about 1,800 women that found:

1.Women with osteoporosis want and need to stay more active as they age

2.Women with osteoporosis fear their disease might limit their independence and ability to continue working

3.The majority of women believe they are doing everything they can to manage their disease; however, the survey shows they are not currently making it a priority in terms of their attention and behavior

The program, which is ongoing, encourages women to educate themselves and take charge of their osteoporosis by visiting KnowMy-Bones.com, a website that provides information about understanding bone health and better management of osteoporosis.

Amgen is a leading human therapeutics company in the biotechnology industry. For more than 25 years, the company has tapped the power of scientifi c discovery and innovation to advance the practice of medicine. Amgen pioneered the development of novel products based on advances in recombinant DNA and molecular biology and launched the biotechnology industry’s fi rst blockbuster medicines. Today, as a Fortune 500 company serving millions of patients, Amgen continues to be an entrepreneurial, science-driven enterprise dedicated to helping people fi ght serious illness.  

The CMA Foundation is proud to welcome Amgen as the newest member of its Corporate Advisory Committee!

8. CMA Foundation Board Extends Its Appreciation to Our Generous Contributors

Every effort was made to ensure the accuracy of the CMA Foundation contributors whose donations were received from March 16, 2009 through September 29, 2009.  If you discover an error, please accept our sincere apology and contact us.

Appeal/Event
1. Physician Champion Mailing
2. Newsletter
3. General Contribution
4. Monthly Giving Club
5. Annual Report
6. Annual Dinner
7. Annual Friend Drive

Permanent Funds
A. Mahal Endowment Fund
B. Physician Benevolence Fund
C. General Endowment Fund
D. Robert D. Sparks, MD Endowment Fund
E. Carlo Joseph Gerald Medical Student Scholarship

Benefactors ($1,000+)

Martin L. Fishman, MD (3)
Steven H. Fugaro, MD (3)
Carol A. Lee, Esq. (1,7,3)
Rolland C. Lowe, MD (3)
Anmol S. Mahal, MD (A)
Chuck & Elissa Maas (1, 4)
Diana E. Ramos, MD (2, 3)
Satinder Swaroop, MD (1)
Frank Tortorice (E)

Patrons ($500-$999)

Richard S. Frankenstein, MD (C)
Victor A. Kevorkian, MD (7)
Robert D. Sparks, MD (D, 6)
Gary W. Tamkin, MD (1)
Lawrence R. Walker, MD (1)
Stewart R. Wright, MD (7)

Friends ($100-$499)

George B. Abbott, Jr., MD (1)
Barbara J. Arnold, MD (2)
Valerie Barnes, MD (1, 6)
James M. Betts, MD (7)
Rosalyn l. Binning, MD (1)
Balazs I. Bodai, MD (1)
Lonnie R. Bristow, MD (1)
Bahman Chavoshan, MD (5)
Drs. James and Linda Clever, (1)
Charles A. Clifford, Jr., MD (2)
James C. Cotter, MD (1)
Patricia M. Estopinal (5, 6)
William Y. Fong, MD (1)
George A. Fouras, MD (1)
Jack L. Gilliland, MD (1)
Donald L. Hager, MD (2)
W. R. Hencke, MD (7)
William L. Hennrikus, MD (1)
Edward A. Hess, MD (1)
Mohammad M. Hossain, MD (1)
Javad  Jamshidi, MD (1)
M. Jay Jazayeri, MD (7)
Toni D. Johnson-Chavis, MD (5)
Carol A. Lee, Esq. (1, 7)
Kelvin  Loh, MD (1)
Hong Thanh Mai, MD (1)
Maria E. Minon, MD (6)
Sandra  Navarro, PhD, MPH (1)
Lan T. Nguyen, MD (7)
Sean O’Brien (5)
Floyd H. Okada, MD (2)
Parviz Parsa, MD (7)
Tom H. Piatt, MD (7)
Paul Y. Qaqundah, MD (1)
Cesar A. Ramos, MD (1)
William C.  Reed, MD (7)
Dr. William and Mrs. Debbie Ricks, (1)
Ana C. Rojas, RN, PhD (G)
Jack E. Rozance, MD (7)
Joseph E. Scherger, MD (1)
Dr. Edward & Mrs. Nancy Schneider (5)
James  Scillian, MD (2, 5)
Victoria  Sheen (1)
Elliiot B. Shubin, MD (1)
W. C. Sims, MD (7)
S. Clark Smith, MD (5)
Linda  Stratton (3)
Captane P. Thomson, MD (1)
Joseph D. Toscano, MD (1, 7)
Robert E. Wailes, MD (7)
Leon R. Walker, MD (7)
Elmer C. Werner, MD (7)
Charles B. Wilson, MD (7)
William H. Winchell, MD (2)
Elizabeth F. Wu, MD (7)

Supporters (up to $99)

Thomas E. Addison, MD (6)
Ronald A. Allison, MD (7)
   In Memory of  Antonietta Alessio
Edward D. Amorosi, MD (2)
Adele Amodeo (5)
Mary Jo Anhalt (6)
Jim Blechman, MD (7)
Jack B. Collins (3)
James S. Dunn, MD (1)
James P. Feloney, MD (3)
Marshall S. Flam, MD (6)
Ezekiel Freed, MD (1, 5)
Mostafa A. Hamdy, MD (B)
James Hanson, MD (6)
Albert D. Johnson, MD (B)
Irwin Kempler, MD (7)
Lawrence W. Kneisley, MD (1)
Michael B. Krinsky, MD (7)
Siva Natarajan, MD (7)
Albert Ray, MD (2)
R.E. Roth (5)
Marcy L. Zwelling-Aamot, MD (3)

Corporate Advisory Committee

The CMA Foundation extends its thanks to the following Corporate partners who support our endeavors and enable us to continue to provide high quality programs.

Benefactors

Amgen USA
Genentech, Inc.
Kaiser Permanente
Lilly USA
NORCAL Mutual Insurance Company
.

Partners

Abbott Laboratories
Blue Shield of California
IMS Health
Johnson & Johnson
Pfizer Inc.

Friends

.Aetna, Inc.
Bristol-Myers Squibb Company
Daiichi Sankyo, Inc.
DavisWrightTremaine, LLP
Endo Pharmaceuticals
GlaxoSmithKline
McKesson Corporation
Miller Health Law Group
Nehemiah Corporation of America
Parker, Milliken, Clark, O’Hara & Samuelian, Professional Corp.
Procter & Gamble
The Doctors Company

Leadership Circle

The Leadership Circle Recognizes individuals who contributed $1,000 or more to the CMA Foundation during the past year.

Patty Austin,MD
Valerie Barnes, MD
J. Brennan Cassidy, MD
Arthur  M. Chen, MD
Francis J. Crosson, MD
Martin L. Fishman, MD
Richard S. Frankenstein, MD, FACP
Steven Fugaro, MD
Ralph Garcia
Dev GnanaDev, MD
Bonnie C. Hamilton, MD
James G. Hinsdale, MD
Carol A. Lee, Esq.
Dexter Louie, MD, JD
Rolland C. Lowe, MD
Chuck and Elissa Maas
Anmol S. Mahal, MD
Lia Margolis
Prasanna Menon, MD
Dr. and Mrs. Ralph Ocampo
Diana E. Ramos, MD
Dr. William and Mrs. Debbie Ricks
Lee Snook, MD
Robert  D. Sparks, MD
Frank Staggers Sr., MD
Satinder Swaroop, MD
Frank Tortorice, MD
George Usi
Hugh Vincent, MD

The CMA Foundation wishes to thank the following organizations for their support of CMA Foundation projects through grants of $10,000 or more from March - September 2009.

Genentech, Inc.
United Health Foundation
Pfi zer, Inc.
Reckitt Benckiser

The CMA Foundation gratefully acknowledges the partial sponsorship of our fall 2009 newsletter by:

Sacramento Technology Group
www.sactechgroup.com

9. Foundation Partners with the national Initiative for Children's Healthcare Quality Initiative in the Fight Ahainst Childhood Obesity

The CMA Foundation has joined the National Initiative for Children’s Healthcare Qua-lity (NICHQ), the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), and the Robert Wood John-son Foundation Center to Prevent Childhood Obesity (CPCO) to facilitate healthcare professionals becoming community advocates for local change.

The partnership is made possible by a $3.25 million grant awarded to NICHQ by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) to reverse the childhood obesity epidemic trend across the nation by training, supporting and providing technical assistance to healthcare professionals in becoming advocates for change within their communities.

“We are pleased to support NICHQ in its effort to help clinicians become advocates for policy and environmental changes that will help us reverse the childhood obe-sity epidemic,” remarked Dwayne Proctor, director of the RWJF Childhood Obesity Team.

Dexter Louie MD, JD, MPA, Chair of the CMA Foundation Board of Directors and Physician Champion stated, “The CMA Foundation is honored to be a part of this grassroots approach bringing health care providers out of their offi ces and into the community with a focus on prevention.” Visit the Obesity Prevention Project sec-tion of the CMA Foundation’s web site at www.thecmafoundation.org for information about its Physician Champion program or contact Alisa Matthews, Obesity Prevention Project Director for the CMA Foundation at (916) 779-6632 or amatthews@thecmafoundation.org.

10. Donate Today!

Making a donation to the CMA Foundation is quick and easy.  Visit our secure web site and help improve the health of all Californians. Contact Maria Moran at (916) 779-6640 for more information.