Margaret Beed, MD
SBCMS member since 2007

Margaret Beed, MD, was appointed health officer for the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health by the county's board of supervisors in early June.

Dr. Beed considers funding as chief among the challenges she will face in her new position. "This is a time when we have to do more with less, because the funding from the state and the federal government and everyplace else is lower and lower each year, and we're required to take on more things, like the role that we're taking on in emergency preparedness," she says. Plus, the large size of San Bernardino County makes the department's job a little more difficult as well, Dr. Beed adds.

When it comes to resource issues, Dr. Beed says her focus will be on making the county's clinics more efficient and collaborating with community groups and healthcare professionals. "We all have this little pool of money," Dr. Beed says. "How can we put that little pool together and make one big pool? Each organization has certain strengths that it brings to a collaborative--how can we take advantage of those kinds of things?"

Like other public health officers around the country, Dr. Beed is hoping to encourage citizens in her county to be more physically active and eat more healthfully to fight obesity and related conditions. In addition to obesity, the county's most important public health issues include newly emerging infectious agents and the problems experienced by people with no healthcare access, especially minority groups, she says.

Guillermo Valenzuela, MD
SBCMS member since 1984
Dr. Valenzuela, in late August, launched an innovative incentive program to encourage at-risk kids at Colton High School to graduate and continue on to college.

There are some students who will go to college "one way or another," says Dr. Valenzuela, an obstetrician in Colton. "What we are trying to do is find ways of inspiring kids who otherwise would not go to school." Wanting to spend part of his income in a more socially conscious way, Dr. Valenzuela founded the Dream Project, which rewards graduating participants with $500 toward college and $150 for graduation expenses, such as a cap and gown. During the school year, students in the Dream Project go to tutoring and motivational meetings, and they attend field trips to local college campuses.

About 30 at-risk students have enrolled in the two-year program so far. "If I'm successful, I'm going to ask a friend to give money to try to expand [the program] to other schools," Dr. Valenzuela says.

The Dream Project is Dr. Valenzuela's way to set young people on the right path because, he notes, it costs about the same to keep a person in prison as it does to send him to Harvard. Yet trying to fit people into society once they've been in prison is difficult, because no one wants to hire or live near ex-cons. "So I thought we could do something a lot earlier, and I can't do a lot, but I can do a little bit," he says.

Beth Karlan, MD
LACMA member since 1987
Dr. Karlan will be the new editor-in-chief of the scientific journal Gynecologic Oncology beginning in 2008. The journal is the official publication of the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists.

A gynecologic oncologist practicing at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, Dr. Karlan is planning to take the journal in a slightly different direction. "The journal will have new sections devoted to news, controversies [and] updates from meetings," she says. "We will be inviting more reviews, inviting debates, in addition to the scientific [articles]."

In an effort to change the journal's impact, Dr. Karlan and its editorial staff will change the case-report format and the formats of other types of reports with less scientific value, she adds. "They'll still be included, but probably more as a supplement to the journal a few times a year."

Dr. Karlan also plans to shift Gynecologic Oncology's scientific focus. "We will be highlighting those basic science [manuscripts] that have direct applicability--or nearly direct applicability--to the clinic," she explains. This means more surgical techniques, continuing medical education offerings and online supplements of video or other data, she says.

David Gershenson, MD, held the editor-in-chief position for 17 years, and Dr. Karlan hasn't ruled out such a long tenure. "We'll start as a five-year contract and go from there," she says. "I look forward to having an opportunity to help lead the journal and the direction of the field over the next decade."

George Sarka, MD
LACMA member since 2003
Dr. Sarka delivered a lecture this summer titled "Which Institution Owns the Legacy of Sir William Osler?" He spoke to the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Society for the History of Medicine as part of his effort to clarify and popularize the intellectual heritage of the great medical reformer.

"As far as I'm concerned, Osler is the internist who transformed medicine for the modern era," Dr. Sarka says. "He transformed the art of medicine by maintaining the physician-patient relationship, which is the epitome of medical care--always putting patients first."

Osler, who lived from 1849 to 1919, was chief of four medical schools, including McGill University in Montreal, Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and finally Oxford University in England. Each of the four medical schools claims Osler's legacy, but Dr. Sarka says he favored one in particular. "Osler ended up donating almost his entire library to McGill University, donated money to set up the first history of medicine library there, and additionally, he had his ashes returned there," says Dr. Sarka, a former McGill medical student himself.

In addition to speaking to the medical history group at Cedars-Sinai, Dr. Sarka has delivered the talk at St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank and to a group of obstetricians/gynecologists also at Cedars-Sinai. His next Osler lecture isn't scheduled yet, but he hopes to be able to present one for the District 1 members of the Los Angeles County Medical Association.

"The reason Osler was so good is because he trained as a pathologist, and he did more than 1,000 autopsies," Dr. Sarka says. Osler passed his hard-won knowledge directly to students and through his seminal textbook, The Principles and Practice of Medicine. When Osler died of influenza and a secondary infection, "he joked that he wanted an autopsy done, but that unfortunately, he would not be able to attend it," Dr. Sarka adds.

BREAKING NEWS:
Physician Executives Announce Insurance Company Deal

Los Angeles-based SCPIE Holdings Inc., a major provider of healthcare liability insurance, has entered into an agreement to be acquired by Napa-based The Doctors Company, for about $281 million.

In making the announcement, Mitchell S. Karlan, MD, chairman of SCPIE Holdings' board of directors, said: "Our board of directors believes this transaction delivers significant value to our stockholders. Additionally, SCPIE will be joining one of the largest and most respected professional liability companies in the nation."

Richard E. Anderson, MD, FACP, chairman and CEO of The Doctors Company, said: "We are extremely pleased to announce this partnership between two physician-founded companies. Members will benefit from the enhanced value of a financially strong combined organization that is relentlessly committed to protecting, defending and rewarding member physicians."

Pending regulatory and shareholder approval of its acquisition of SCPIE, The Doctors Company will expand its coverage in California to nearly 19,000 physicians. In Southern California, SCPIE is sponsored by the Los Angeles County Medical Association, the Orange County Medical Association and the Ventura County Medical Association.