Page 5 - Mecklenburg_Medicine_November-December-2020

President’s Letter
2020 — the Year to Forget?
IBy John R. Allbert, MD
n the 21st century, the purposes of the MCMS are advocating for
providers and patients, promoting opportunities for physicians to
give back to the community, and hosting events where physicians
can connect with other physicians. The COVID-19 pandemic
has had a very negative impact on these goals, like it has with nearly
everything else. In order to accomplish our goals, we turned to using
technology to host ZOOM meetings to discuss the state’s political races
and help physicians cope with the stress of having closed offices, as well
as a social hour to promote brain health hosted by two local physicians
and a pharmacist who have just released books on this fascinating topic.
I recently heard 2020 compared to an avocado — it started out
looking great, but quickly turned ugly. Pessimism seems to be more
popular than ever. Conservatives and liberals agree on one thing:
The world is getting worse every day. Last week, one of the young
sonographers in my office asked me what year I would rather live in if I
could? I quickly responded, “Right now.” The staff in the room looked
on in disbelief and in unison asked, “Really?” I replied, “I can’t think of
a better time to be alive than right now.”
I remember as a child of the 1960s the frequent famines in Africa,
polluted rivers and lakes, the wars in South America and Southeast Asia,
the fights in public schools after integration, and the Cold War. The
future felt uncertain … especially after reading George Orwell’s “1984”
that predicted a world full of dictatorships.
This may come as a shock to pessimists, but being alive today is better
as revealed by so many improved vital statistics. Over the past 30 years
in the United States, the homicide rate has decreased from 8.5/100,000
to 5.3/100,000, there are no wars in 5/6 of the world and none in our
hemisphere. The rate of severe poverty in the developing world has
decreased from 50 percent in 1970 to 11 percent today, even though
the population has doubled. Since 1988, the chance of dying in a car
accident has decreased by 96 percent and in a plane crash by 99 percent.
In addition, 95 percent fewer people die from a work-related accident.
Currently, there are 103 democratic governments in the world compared
to 45 in 1988. We are living longer and living better: In 1970, 70 percent
of adults ages 65-74 were physically disabled; in 2017, it was 15 percent
due to decreased smoking and artificial joint replacement.
In 1800, only 12 percent of the world could read and now 85 percent of
the world can read. In 2015, when Chris Rock was asked why Blacks in
the 1960s weren’t complaining about not being nominated for Academy
Awards, he replied, “It bothered us, but we were more focused on
stopping lynchings back then.” Now, fewer countries have laws against
homosexuality, and violence against women and children is in a long-
term decline.
I must admit, over the past 250 years since the Age of Enlightenment,
progress has been slow and not always constant, but it has been
persistent. The Enlightenment was when dogma, tradition,
authoritarianism and superstition were replaced with reason, science and
institutions of truth.
There will be more trouble in our future — conflicts with people who
don’t look like us, natural disasters and even more pandemics. Instead
Mecklenburg Medicine • November/December 2020 | 5
of focusing on what is wrong with the world, we need to be optimists.
Gregg Easterbrook, in his book, “It’s Better Than It Looks: Reasons for
Optimism in an Age of Fear,” describes an optimist not as someone who
looks at things with rose-colored glasses, but someone who seeks out the
problems that can be fixed and tries to fix them. Thanks to the optimists
who have preceded us, being alive in 2020 is better than living in 1960,
1980 and even in 2010.
My wish is that each of you will continue to support our great county
Medical Society in the coming years, so we can continue to make the
lives of our patients and families even better in 2030. Problems that are
fixable include improving access to safer and more equitable health care
for all of us in Mecklenburg county.
I will finish with a quote from my September letter by holocaust
survivor, Viktor Frankl: “The world is in a bad state, but everything will
become still worse unless each of us does his (her) best.”
CHARLOTTE AHEC COURSE OFFERINGS
Charlotte AHEC is part of the N.C. Area Health Education Centers (AHEC) Program and Atrium Health.
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020
Continuing Medical Education (CME)
12/12 13th Annual GI/HPB Conference: Advances in Treatment Strategies
Webinar Project ECHO: Sickle Cell
Online NRCME DOT Medical Examiners Training Course
Online Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19): What Healthcare Providers Need to Know
Online Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19): An Interview for Practicing Clinicians
Online COVID Conversations: Urgent Care Quality Benchmarking Part I
Online COVID Conversations: Urgent Care Quality Benchmarking Part II
Online COVID Conversations: The Affects on Primary Care
Online COVID Conversations: Lessons from Virtual OnDemand in COVID-19 Pandemic
Online COVID Conversations: A Spiritual Perspective
Online Enhancing Interdisciplinary Opioid Stewardship
Online Exercise Prescription for Osteoarthritis and Weight Management
Online Providing Quality Care to LGBTQ+ Patients
Online A Case-Based Approach to Interprofessional Collaborative Practice:
Learning About, With and From Each other
Online Amplifire: Safe Prescribing Practices for Opioids
Online Non-Fatal Strangulation: A Countywide Protocol
Online Non-Fatal Strangulation: A Countywide Protocol (Nursing)
For more information or to register for these courses, call 704-512-6523 or visit www.charlotteahec.org.