LOUISVILLE Hundreds of Kentucky physicians will gather for the 2019 Annual Meeting of the Kentucky Medical Association (KMA), to be held Sept. 20–22 at the Louisville Marriott East. The theme of this year’s meeting, Moving Medicine: Together for Tomorrow, celebrates and encourages the unification of physicians around issues of importance, particularly public health advocacy.
In conjunction with this year’s annual meeting, Kentucky Educational Television (KET) is producing a town hall style forum that will bring together KMA physicians and healthcare professionals in a single setting to address determinants of positive patient outcomes. “Prescription for Health: A KET Forum” will center around issues that contribute to poor health and early death across Kentucky, including smoking, type 2 diabetes, and substance abuse. These topics are key focus areas for KMA’s public health work and are included as part of its AIM for Better Care: Administrative Improvements in Medicine initiative, which seeks to eliminate barriers to treatment for Kentucky patients.
The event, the first of its kind for KET, will feature a panel composed of KMA physicians, policymakers, and public health officials. These include KMA president and Louisville otolaryngologist Bruce Scott, MD, Louisville internist Monalisa Tailor, MD, Representative Kim Moser, chair of the House Health and Family Services Committee, and Allison Adams, president of the Kentucky Health Departments Association. Renee Shaw, host of the award-winning “Connections,” along with Kentucky Physicians Leadership Institute graduate and “Kentucky Health” host Wayne Tuckson, MD, will moderate the discussion, as well as solicit additional input from the audience. Attendees must have a ticket for this event, so members are encouraged to register as soon as possible to secure a seat.
Saturday’s Kentucky Physicians Leadership Academy will be headlined by Russell Coleman, United States Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky, and other law enforcement and public health officials as they discuss “Opioids and the Federal Law Enforcement Perspective.”
Coleman is the chief law enforcement officer for the 53-county area, serving a population of more than 2.2 million, including two military installations and federal courthouses in Louisville, Bowling Green, Paducah, and Owensboro. The office is responsible for prosecuting violations of federal law, including crimes related to firearms, narcotics, public corruption, child exploitation, wire and bank fraud, and terrorism.
Saturday’s events will also include the installation of KMA’s 2019–2020 President Brent Wright, MD, of Glasgow during the KMA leadership dinner. Wright currently serves as associate dean for rural health innovation at the University of Louisville School of Medicine, vice chair for rural health and associate professor in the UofL Department of Family & Geriatric Medicine, and medical director for T.J. Sampson Community Hospital Family Medicine Center. He also serves as chair for the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky and has been a member of the KMA Board of Trustees for eight years. The leadership dinner will also recognize graduates of KMA’s Medical Student Outreach and Leadership (MSOL) Program as well as its 2019 class of Community Connectors.
On Sunday, attendees will have the opportunity to convene with their county medical society caucuses as well as help set policy for the Association during the annual House of Delegates meeting.
The 2019 KMA Annual Meeting promises to deliver an informative and engaging experience for attendees. More details, as well as registration and hotel reservation information is available at https://kyma.org/2019-annual-meeting/. Members are encouraged to register as soon as possible to secure their spot for attendance.