American Academy of Emergency Medicine

If you are a member of AAEM and live in Florida, we hope that you are also a member of your Florida state chapter, FLAAEM. However, joining AAEM does not automatically make you a state chapter member. There is a separate application for our organization. You can find it on the AAEM website under state chapters at www.aaem.org/statechapters/flaaem_app_2007.pdf. If you haven't joined yet, we urge you to do so. There are many things we can achieve at the state level, but we need your support. There is strength in numbers and the greater our membership, the more we can accomplish for you, the Florida ED doc! This is an update on what we have been working on so far this year. We will be providing regular reports in Common Sense and on the website, as well as through our list serve.

Item #1 - List serve
We established a list serve for all FLAAEM members. This is a vehicle to distribute information to our members, as well as a potential forum for conversations and dialogue. The address is flaaem@lists.aaem.org

Item #2 - Elections
We held special elections this year, utilizing online balloting. Results were as follows:
President
Dr. Mark Foppe
Vice President
Dr. Ken Scheppke
Treasurer/Secretary
Dr. Aryeh Pessah
Directors
Dr. Douglas Lee
Dr. Victor Andres Sasson
Associate Director
Dr. Tobey Williams

The executive committee had previously voted to amend the bylaws to increase the number of directors and to create an associate director position to represent the associate members as well as a resident position, currently vacant, on the board. Dr. Joel Stern remains on the board as Immediate Past President.

Item #3 - Donation to AAEM Foundation
The board voted to donate $1000 to the AAEM Foundation to support their important legal battles in the state of Texas. We encourage all FLAAEM members to make individual donations as well.

Item #4 - Dr. McNamara Visiting Mount Sinai Residents
On October 24th, Dr. Robert McNamara visited the emergency medicine residency program at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach to give his lecture on the state of emergency medicine. This is part of our ongoing effort to make our residents aware of the realities of the corporate practices in our state. Many thanks to Dr. Beth Longenecker, the Residency Director at Mount Sinai, for her assistance in organizing this important meeting.

Item #5 - BOD Meetings
In March 2007, a FLAAEM meeting was held at the 13th Scientific Assembly of AAEM in Las Vegas. A FLAAEM meeting will be held during the next AAEM SA in Amelia Island, Florida, February 7 - 9. All are welcome to attend, exact time and location to be announced.

Item #6 - Board Certification Issues
In July 2007, the BOD of FLAAEM worked with Rep. Homan on the EM questionnaire for the Physicians Workforce Bill before the Florida Legislature to ensure that board certification was included. On July 17, 2007, Mark Foppe, DO FAAEM, spoke at the FENA state meeting regarding EM physician certification. FENA has agreed to support attempts at legislatively addressing this issue.

Item #7 - Other Legislative Issues
Dr. Mark Foppe, FLAAEM President, and Dr. Joel Stern, FLAAEM Immediate Past President, will be attending the FMA's Council on Legislation Meeting regarding the On-Call crisis in Florida and joint efforts of FMA, FOMA and FLAAEM to get sovereign immunity for EM physicians and specialists who take calls for the ED. This will take place during the FMA Board of Governors Meeting in Tampa on October 26th. As you can see, there are a lot of exciting things happening with our organization. We are looking forward to seeing everyone at the Scientific Assembly in Amelia Island this coming February.

We would also like to extend our best wishes for a speedy recovery to Tom Derenne, who was recently injured in a serious car accident. Tom has been working very closely with us this year, and his assistance has been invaluable. Tom, our thoughts and prayers are with you.

Joel Stern, MD FAAEM
Immediate Past President FLAAEM
drj1000@msn.com