Ambassador Hoffmann
Mike Abrams, Executive Vice President of the Iowa Medical Society
IMS President Dr. Patricia Hoffmann (left) congratulates newly-installed AMA President Dr. Nancy Nielsen. Dr. Hoffmann, a Des Moines anesthesiologist, is the second female president of IMS, and Dr. Nielsen, an infectious disease specialist in Buffalo, New York, is the second female president of AMA.In the unlikely event I'm ever elected President of the United States (cue chuckling here), I'm going to appoint Dr. Patricia Hoffmann to some important ambassadorial post.
Dr. Hoffmann was installed as IMS president in April 2008, and next weekend her tenure as our president will end. She has had a fantastic year as the profession's leader, and one of the hallmarks of her year has been her work as Chief Medical Ambassador. She has met with Congressmen, Senators, Governor Culver, UI President Sally Mason, the AMA President, specialty society presidents, and scads of other VIPs, and she is universally complimented.
Rightly or wrongly, there is a lot to be said for relationships. You can get a lot more done if people like and trust you. Dr. Hoffmann has put a wonderful face on the profession of medicine in Iowa in many venues. She has been an articulate advocate for Medicare reform, scope of practice issues, public health work, issues involving the Iowa Board of Medicine, and countless other issues.
As IMS President, Dr. Hoffmann has been willing to be on point with some controversial issues, some of which caused her to get unwanted contact from some rather vociferous, albeit ill-informed members of the general public. (And in order to protect her from further unwanted contact from that crowd I'll not mention the issue here)!
I'm accustomed to seeing our president's name and picture in the state's newspapers, but normally I know about it in advance. Imagine my surprise when I opened the morning Des Moines Register one day and saw a large, color picture of her. The Register did a story on the theft of her family's baby Jesus from their Christmas yard display. To make a long, hilarious story short - she was able to reclaim it from the police department, and the paper decided to write about it. You never know what will capture the imagination of a newspaper reporter!
Being IMS president takes a lot of time, which is a commodity that physicians allocate very carefully. We are fortunate that such a tremendous, articulate champion sacrificed a great deal of time to share her leadership skills with the profession through her role as our - your - president. Thanks Dr. Hoffmann.