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PRESIDENT’S
MESSAGE

I’m Serious.

Have Fun!

By Adam Ratner, MD, 2019 BCMS President

As a medical student completing my first research fellowship, row, I know I need to change something.”
the program sponsor, Stanley J. Sarnoff, MD, asked me one of the The good news is that if we’re not happy, we as physicians have
most important questions ever asked of me in my life, “Adam, did far more power than most to change our lives, but it’s not easy
you have fun?” and not without tradeoffs. Many of us are pretty good at optimiz-
I was dumbfounded. No one had ever pointed out so explicitly ing our short-term revenue but have never given enough thought
to me that fun should be a serious consideration in the life of a to optimizing long-term happiness (and fun). If you’re not as
medical researcher or physician. I had always thought that medi- happy as you’d like to be, consider refocusing your considerable
cine was the most serious of professions. After I contemplated intellectual firepower to examine your life and adjust your priori-
this unexpected question for several seconds, I finally replied, ties to optimize meaning and fun. Steve Jobs also said, “Have the
“Yes, I had a blast!” This made him smile. courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow know
I had always known that my father, Irving A. Ratner, MD, was what you truly want to become.”
dedicated to his patients and worked long hours as a pediatric sur- As this is my last BCMS presidential message, I want to take
geon. It wasn’t until many years later, after I’d been in private prac- this opportunity to thank so many who have contributed to the
tice for several years and he had been practicing for several success of the BCMS this year: You, the members, the committee
decades, that Dad told me explicitly, “I have the best job in the chairs, co-chairs, directors, and officers, without whom this or-
world. I love what I do, and they actually pay me to do it. I’d do it ganization would be nothing; our energetic and passionate staff
for nothing if I had to.” led by our most capable executive director, Steve Fitzer; Danielle
We have invested an enormous amount of time, energy, and Henkes and the passionate leaders of the BCMS Alliance; our sup-
money while deferring gratification, to become the best physicians porters from the Circle of Friends. I must also thank my amazing
we can be. We deserve to be happy and have fun while we perform and beautiful wife, Varda, for her forbearance and considerable
our important and meaningful work. support during this year. You have all helped make this year at
Yet, too many of us are unhappy. Each of us have our own BCMS more fun and meaningful for me and I hope I’ve, at least
challenges to our happiness. For many, misery comes from the in some small way, made it more fun and meaningful for you.
lack of autonomy in our practices; for others, the relentless bur- Finally, I want to thank the students and residents at both the
dens of the health care bureaucracy; and for others, the need for UIW School of Osteopathic Medicine and UT Health San Antonio
fresh and exciting challenges beyond our reach in dreary, mech- who reinvigorate my soul with their energy and passion and con-
anized practices. stantly remind me that the future of Medicine is very, very bright.
Steve Jobs once said, “For the past 33 years, I have looked in
the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‘If today were the last Dr. Adam Ratner is President of the Bexar County Medical Society and
day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ serves as Professor and Assistant Dean of the University of the Incarnate
And whenever the answer has been ‘No’ for too many days in a Word School of Osteopathic Medicine and Chair of The Patient Institute.

8 San Antonio Medicine • December 2019