From the
PRESIDENT
Robert A. Zaring, MD, MMM
GLMS President | [email protected]
THE Fleur-de-Lis CONNECTION
T
wo-time United Kingdom Prime
Minister Benjamin Disraeli once
said, “Change is inevitable. Change
is constant.” Those words accurate-
ly reflect the climate in the coun-
try, especially in health care. The country
and the health care community have seen
the end of the despised sustainable growth
rate given to us by the Balanced Budget Act
of 1997. However, out of its demise rose the
Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization
Act of 2015 (MACRA) with its Merit-based
Incentive Payment System (MIPS) contain-
ing an array of new quality standards, quality
improvement requirements, value-based re-
source use evaluations, and electronic health
record usage standards. The changes do not
end there, and with the election of Donald
Trump as President of the United States we
face the possibility of once again fundamen-
tally changing the delivery of health care.
While the country has faced enormous
change, so has our own Greater Louisville
Medical Society (GLMS). We have made
the successful move from the Old Medical
School Building to our new home in the
Fleur-de-Lis Building on Main. While we
look with great reverence on the past we look
forward to the great opportunities change
allows us. One of the opportunities the move
will create is an enhanced integration of the
GLMS Foundation into the activities of the
society. One of the Foundation’s primary
jobs was to maintain the Old Medical School
Building but since the sale of the building
that duty is now in the hands of the Ronald
McDonald House. This will allow the
Foundation to devote more time to its other
missions including: the promotion of public
health, the encouragement and development
of scientific activity, the planning and
initiation of research activities, and the
dissemination of medical knowledge to the
general public. I would encourage you to
investigate the new and exciting endeavors
the Foundation has planned. They have been
hard at work with the help of a Louisville
IGNITE team to broaden their service to the
community.
Given the changes that have occurred as
well as the potential changes we are working
on with the Medical Society Professional
Services (MSPS) subsidiary it only seemed
appropriate to create a new logo. Therefore,
we are proud to introduce the new logo for
GLMS (see left page). The new logo signifies
the direction we envision for the society and
yet still captures our tradition. You might
have noticed the new logo on the mailings
you have received. The new logo is a fleur-de-
lis with a snake wrapped around the center
three times and composed of the colors red,
blue and purple. Each element of the logo is a
reminder of who we are, how our individual
parts merge into a unified presence, and how
we relate to our state and national societies.
The fleur-de-lis has been around since
the Greek and Roman cultures but became
a symbol of French royalty and symbolized
perfection, light and life. In other traditions,
the fleur-de-lis has signified such ideas as
purity, virtue and rebirth. The connection
with the medical society, which has had a
fleur-de-lis since the society was known as
the Jefferson County Medical Society, is with
the city of Louisville. In 1953, the Austrian
Victor Hammer designed the seal of the city
of Louisville which included three fleur-
de-lis, 13 stars and the year 1778 all on a
blue background. The fleur-de-lis harkened
back to the origin of the city’s name, which
was named Louisville to honor King Louis
XVI of France. The 13 stars represented
the 13 original colonies and 1778 was the
year the city of Louisville was founded. The
seal changed in 2003 with the merger of
Louisville and Jefferson County but still has
the fleur-de-lis as its primary symbol.
Therefore, the fleur-de-lis reminds us of
our connection to our traditions but also to
the community we serve. The three leaves of
the fleur-de-lis and the three rings the snake
forms signifies three aspects of the Society
(GLMS, GLMS Foundation, and MSPS)
all working together for the community’s
health, and bound by a uniform purpose.
The goal is to remind us that all elements
of the society should be closely aligned and
working together to better serve the general
community and our members. The colors
also have a deep significance. The color blue
ties us to our state society, the Kentucky
Medical Association; The color red to the
city of Louisville and the noble ideals of
leadership, passion and courage; and the
blended colors forming a purplish hue to
our national society, the American Medical
Association.
I hope you enjoy the new logo and see it
as a symbol of how GLMS is changing to
meet the demands of a shifting health care
landscape. Your Society is hard at work to
make the necessary changes to its various
functions to meet your ongoing needs and
the logo is a reminder and a beacon to how
we hope to do that and who we are. The
logo signifies change but also forces us to
remember our traditions and all those that
have contributed to the success of the Society
in the past.
Dr. Zaring is an anatomic and clinical patholo-
gist with Louisville Pathology Associates and
practices at Jewish Hospital.
JUNE 2017
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