Horacio Rodiles, MD
ICMS member since 1973

Horacio Rodiles, MD, a nephrologist in El Centro, was awarded the California Medical Association's Frederick K.M. Plessner Memorial Award for rural physicians at an Oct. 27 ceremony during the association's House of Delegates. Each year, the Plessner award is bestowed on a physician who "best exemplifies the ethics and practice of a rural practitioner," according to the CMA. In Dr. Rodiles' case, it recognizes his 30-plus years of service to Imperial County citizens who otherwise had no local access to medical care for kidney problems.

Imperial County has a large underserved community "with a tremendous impact of diabetes, hypertension and obesity," Dr. Rodiles says. All three problems are reaching epidemic proportions in the county and throughout the Southwest due to poor dietary habits, low levels of exercise and a genetic predisposition among Hispanics, he says. "The need for dialysis increases with the incidence of end-stage kidney disease in this population."

"I started a practice in 1976, and it grew from 17 patients on dialysis to over 300," Dr. Rodiles says. At first, his nephrology practice in Brawley was the only one serving the entire Imperial Valley community of about 90,000, he says. Now the growing community of about 160,000 people has access to four nephrologists and facilities in Brawley, El Centro and Calexico.

Dr. Rodiles has held every Imperial County Medical Society executive board position. He promotes community recreation and fitness through an El Centro soccer program and by serving as president of the Imperial Valley Soccer League. He has also served as chief of staff at Pioneers Memorial Hospital and El Centro Regional Medical Center.

J. Brennan Cassidy, MD
OCMA member since 1975
Marcy Zwelling-Aamot, MD
LACMA member since 1987

Drs. Cassidy and Zwelling-Aamot are each running for the office of president-elect of the California Medical Association for 2008-09. The election will take place at the CMA House of Delegates meeting next October. At this year's House of Delegates, Dev GnanaDev, MD, ran unopposed for president-elect, and he will serve in that capacity for the 2007-08 term. He will ascend to the office of president after the 2008 meeting.

Both candidates have held prominent positions in their county medical associations and in the CMA. Dr. Cassidy is a Santa Ana-based physician, a past president of the Orange County Medical Association and currently serves as chairman of the CMA board of trustees. Dr. Zwelling-Aamot is a primary care practitioner in Los Alamitos, past president of the Los Angeles County Medical Association and a current CMA trustee.

Dr. Cassidy says of his candidacy: "I am currently serving my third term as chairman of your board of trustees, and I will continue to bring calm, assertive leadership to continue CMA's major positive course corrections under the leadership of our new executive vice president/CEO and the current executive committee. We achieved a perfect legislative record with the governor's signature on all CMA-sponsored bills while killing all attacks on physicians, including the 2-percent tax."

Says Dr. Zwelling-Aamot: "As doctors, we know that healthcare should center on our individual patients' needs. Unfortunately, all too often the discussion is diverted to money and politics. CMA needs to focus on how we can lead the reform to make the very best 'needs-based' healthcare happen in an affordable clinical setting without the obstructive paperwork and mandates that government and health plans deliver to the paradigm. I believe that I am the person to lead us to that 'better day for CMA.'"

Neil Barth, MD
OCMA member since 1987

Dr. Barth, a medical oncologist in Newport Beach, became Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian's chief of staff in October, a position he will hold for two years.

While in office, Dr. Barth hopes to tackle a number of issues, naming the top three as: seeking medical staff, physician and hospital alignment; maintaining the medical staff's economic viability in a challenging reimbursement environment; and finding a way to exert influence over physician profiles developed by entities such as insurance companies and public reporting agencies.

Of physician profiling, he says: "I want to make sure that we're in control of that information, as opposed to somebody forcing it on us from the outside. [We] certainly want to be responsive and responsible, but we also want to make sure that the data that's published is accurate and reflective of our physicians' performance."

In his approach, Dr. Barth says he plans to chart a slightly different course from that of his predecessor. "I think that increased communication to the medical staff to keep them at a higher level of awareness for all of these initiatives is my primary concern," he says. "The ability to communicate to the frontline medical staff members--even about the most sensitive of issues--is something that I firmly believe needs to be first and foremost on the agenda for maintaining the trust and function of the organized medical staff structure."