The Value OF MEDICAL SOCIETY MEMBERSHIP
by Jeffrey Goldberg, MD
There is a traffic signal at the corner of Norris Place and Eastern Parkway that according to family lore was placed there because of the work of my grandmother( of blessed memory). My father’ s family lived in the Highlands on Norris Place just four houses from the corner of Eastern Parkway, and on warm summer nights in the late 1940s, they would sit on the front porch and often hear the“ bang” of steel automobile bodies and fenders crashing at the intersection. Louisville’ s mayor at the time, the colorful Charles R. Farnsley, was known for holding regular“ beef sessions” with his constituents to hear complaints. These were consistently attended by my grandmother, who managed to find something to speak about at almost every one of them. She complained repeatedly about all the collisions at the corner just down the street from her home until he finally had the city install a traffic light at the intersection. I’ m pretty sure the city engineers would have gotten to it eventually anyway, but I’ d like to think that it happened a lot sooner because of my grandmother. Who knows how many accidents she prevented.
While such stories of individual perseverance bringing about change for the good are inspiring and uplifting, they are also increasingly uncommon in today’ s world. With population growth, increasing bureaucracy and the cacophony of opinions magnified by access to the internet, the ability of any one individual to effect change becomes more limited with each passing year. Conversely, it has never been easier to connect with others with whom we share a common cause. When my grandmother needed signatures on a petition to request a variance so she could build a new ranch home instead of a larger two-story house, she had to physically march up and down the street, rain or shine, to gather signatures on paper. Today, all she would need to do would be to sign up for an account on Nextdoor, all from the comfort of her home.
As a profession, we can leverage these changes in society for the benefit of our patients and the advancement of the healing arts. In the past, membership in a professional medical society was a matter of prestige and camaraderie. Election to membership in the county medical society was a professional advancement akin to obtaining licensure or admission to a hospital medical staff. Fifty years ago, board-certification was optional, but having your picture in the Jefferson County Medical Society( as we were then known) roster book was not, at least if you hoped to connect with your colleagues and build a thriving private practice. Dinner meetings of professional societies, from the Louisville Gut Club to the Louisville Obstetrical and Gynecologic Society, were once frequent and well-attended. Today, many of us must stay in the office well after the last patient has left in order to finish charting in the electronic record, clean up
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