This is the time of year the Medical Society president gets to serve as Father Time, report on the deeds of the year just past and say thank you. We have traveled far from the organization that was founded in the old courthouse on what is now Cathedral Square. We have traveled far from the organization we were just a decade ago. With that reality in mind, I can say that I am confident of our professional descendants ability to keep our organization viable and relevant far into this new, this 21 st century.
Words truly are lousy soldiers when the mission is to describe intense feelings.
The answer is that you can t. With the foregoing in mind I will outline some of what our Medical Society accomplished for physicians and the patients we serve this year. You can argue the Beethoven analogy to be a little grandiose but there can be no argument over the work we accomplish through volunteers and a small paid staff being symphonic in its scope. We ended the 20 th century as our member physicians wanted it to be, unified with the State Medical Society of Wisconsin and working diligently in collaboration with a large number of groups. Collaborative work with our integrated delivery systems and health insurers has produced preventive health care guidelines.