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PRESIDENT’S
MESSAGE

CELEBRATING OUR PAST

WHILE PREPARING

FOR OUR FUTURE

By Sheldon Gross, MD, 2018 BCMS President

This issue of San Antonio Medicine is dedicated to our city's into the future.
tricentennial celebration. As I have stated before, it is an honor As a county med-
to be BCMS President. It is an even greater honor to be president ical society, we should also be concerned with what our health
during our city's tricentennial celebration. As mentioned by Dr. care system will look like over the following centuries and what
Fred Olin later in this issue, there will be a symposium on the role physicians will play in an increasingly complex society. As I
morning of May 12, 2018 discussing the evolution of health care mentioned above, there are new genetic treatments available to
in San Antonio over the past 300 years. It promises to be a fasci- previously fatal conditions. Their cost is in the hundreds of thou-
nating discussion with a luncheon keynote address by Henry Cis- sands of dollars. This raises the question of how do we finance
neros. I encourage all to attend. these incredible but hugely expensive treatments for a small num-
This issue contains outstanding discussions of how medicine ber of people?
evolved in San Antonio and specific physicians that played key roles. Will physicians continue to be the captain of the ship? What role
From today's perspective, we look back 200 or 300 years ago and will physician extenders play and how will they fit into the adminis-
can only view medical treatments from that era as rudimentary and trative management of health care? These are critical questions that
at times barbaric. We have to force ourselves to remember that an- will largely determine the health care environment of the future.
tibiotics were a product of the 20th century. Prior to this, fever from Will we continue to have a pluralistic health care system where
a bacterial infection was often fatal. If we compare medical care people have a cafeteria-style option of plans to choose from? Will
from 300 years ago to our present age of organ transplantation, ge- we, like other countries, move to a single health care payer system
netic diagnosis and treatment of previously fatal diseases, laparo- run by the government? There are countless other issues we cannot
scopic and robotic approach to surgery, and the many other even imagine that will without question impact our health care de-
advances, it is nothing less than astounding. I recently saw a 2 livery in this country.
month old infant in my practice with a degenerative condition in- At the same time that I learn how health care has evolved in San
volving spinal muscular atrophy. This condition, known as Werd- Antonio, I also look to the future and hope that our community will
nig-Hoffman disease, had been uniformly fatal up until the last two play a major role in health care research, health care delivery, and
or three years. There are now two different genetic approaches to health care education. I am optimistic about health care and the role
actually repairing the faulty DNA and curing a previously incurable of physicians in years to come.
genetic disease. As physicians, we often complain about the weak- As always, I welcome the thoughts and opinions of colleagues
nesses in our health care system. We complain about managed care, in San Antonio with regards to our past, present, and future.
increasing bureaucratic load, maintenance of certification, and many
other challenges dealt with on a daily basis. It is easy to forget exactly Sincerely,
how much progress has been made during our lifetimes. It is as- SHELDON GROSS, MD
tounding to see how much progress has been made over the past President
300 years. It makes one wonder what medicine will be like 300 years Bexar County Medical Society

8 San Antonio Medicine • April 2018